Being a fresher can be tough. It’s a massive jump from school – a jump from childhood to adulthood, and this jump can lead to you making heaps of failures, some of which you definitely want to avoid. So, if you don’t want to make such awful mistakes that make you want to crawl into a ball and cringe at your own reflection, then here is a step-by-step guide on how to survive being a fresher.
Clubbing:
Many people like to go clubbing with their friends, and so do I (maybe a bit too much). But from experience, going alone is the best way to experience clubbing. Going alone is so much more dangerous which is great if you really love that adrenaline rush. But going with friends is still so much fun, especially when you’ve had quite a few drinks in you. The best way to do this is for you all to get blackout drunk. Not only does this mean that you will feel like you have been assaulted by Thomas the Tank Engine the next day, but you will also be completely unsafe when getting home. Once again, the adrenaline rush will be so strong, you’ll love it, and you won’t regret it one bit.
As a plus, make sure to go during exam season and never go to a student night. You will encounter utter weirdos, and the club will be completely empty. Not only is this a great break from the stresses of exams, but you will also have so much more space on the dance floor to party and all the weirdos will be a great laugh and you won’t feel uncomfortable one bit. The first time I went to The Edge, hardly anyone was there except a bunch of old people. I deeply regret not staying because as we all know, all old people are party animals and have the sickest moves.
Friends:
Making friends is incredibly important for making university some of the best years of your life. You will likely find friends for life there. So, the best way to make friends is to simply not put yourself out there. Being proactive in making friends is incredibly scary, and you don’t want all of that stress. So, the healthiest way (and best way) to make friends is to not do anything at all and just wait for them to come to you. This guarantees that all the people you do become friends with are all lovely people and you have the best friends you could ask for.
Societies:
A really good way to not only make the most out of university and to make lots of new friends is going to societies. There are so many societies; the options are endless. There are a range from sports societies all the way to faith societies and music societies and subject-based societies. Many people try out as many societies as they can at the beginning of the year so they can whittle it down to a few societies they like and want to spend a lot of time at. But this doesn’t actually work because who has the time for that? Wouldn’t you rather just lie in your bed that has been slept in by countless people over several years, rewatching Brooklyn 99 for the millionth time than go and meet some actually interesting people and do activities that you may never have the chance to do again? Yeah, the first option is infinitely better. Just find one society that you are very familiar with from home and commit like the Prime Minister commits to supporting Israel. I did this for the first half of my first year with the Christian Union (love those icons) and I definitely didn’t feel boxed into one culture.
Most courses also have their own societies, but these are not useful in the slightest. Some of these people may be willing to help you with your course whilst still having incredibly fun events, and why would you want that when you could just get blackout drunk at the first pub of a pub crawl.
Food and shopping:
We all know that being a student is expensive, and you are forced to live on little money, but you only live once so why not buy all the bougiest, most expensive food you can find. Don’t look at food on the bottom shelf. Bottom shelf food is always the cheapest and most decent-ish food, which if bought, could lead to you having more money to spend on going to events with friends when you could eat really nice food whilst watching the newest episode of Celebrity Big Brother. Basically, shop at Waitrose.
You must also buy way too much food to handle. Will this lead to a lot of your food going mouldy, turning your kitchen into Patient Zero of the next pandemic? Potentially. But on the other hand, think of all the options you could have to eat from when making dinner or just eating because you’re bored.
Exercise:
Keeping in shape is quite important (according to my PE teachers, but they were boring, so I didn’t really listen). One way people keep in shape at university is by joining a sport society. My recommendation is to join the baking or cooking society, which is kind of a sport. I’m not a member of these societies so I can’t confirm, but I like to watch the Bake Off and contestants move about a lot when baking, and they fan their bakes a lot so that must burn quite a few calories.
To add to this, a very good way of keeping in shape is to get the bus everywhere, even if it’s only a three-minute journey, or even slower to go by bus. This may seem counterintuitive, but actually just seeing the bus about to leave will force you to run to catch the bus and that’s all the exercise you need. I did this all the time with my free bus pass, and I could still go up a flight of stairs without getting stitches so that just proves I’m in good shape.
Coursework:
Sadly, university does require you to do some work, but it does balance out with the fact that you (hopefully) enjoy your course. When it comes to assignments, make sure to do them at the very last minute. There’s no need to do multiple drafts because the stress from writing your essay at the last minute will get you in the zone and your work will be top tier.
Submitting your assignments late is completely fine as well. Who cares about a 10% deduction in your marks? That’s like nothing. Plus, there’s no need to use the preview feature when submitting an assignment. If there isn’t anything on the preview, that’s just the system playing hard to get and definitely not because your file is corrupted and therefore it won’t get marked. This happened to me, and I’m now in a very loving relationship with Turnitin – we’re even considering starting a family.
Medication:
This won’t apply to most people, but for those it does apply to, this is an incredibly important thing to sort out. When moving to a new city, you will inevitably need to change GP. However, your prescribed medications don’t get transferred to your new GP and so you are unable to order any new prescriptions until you have an appointment with your GP to re-prescribe your medication. Is this a bad system? No and you’re crazy for suggesting that.
What you want to do is just do nothing. Santa always ensures you get your medication and so any massive panics about whether you’ll get an appointment with your GP in time and then get your medication in time are gone! You definitely wouldn’t potentially need to go to the other side of the city to pick up emergency medication on a Sunday because most of the pharmacies are closed.
If you follow these pieces of advice, then you will be just fine.
