My first year at university

I made the scary transition to university last September and it was very scary. Moving to a different city, with different people, having to live on your own is a daunting prospect to anyone.

So my university experience started off pretty badly (apart from freshers week of course), I had my reserves about my course beforehand and toyed with the idea of referring a year but in the end I decided to start and within three weeks realised I wasn't enjoying my course, as I had expected. Luckily it wasn't late to change, and I would advise anyone in the same situation to take this opportunity. Doing a course you don’t want to do, isn't going to work out in the long run because as I found out that when my heart wasn't totally in it, I found I just didn't do the work, which is never a good sign at the start of a degree.

So every fresher knows that the legendary "freshers week" is the biggest week of the year, meeting flat mates and new friends, getting used to your new home and city (and lot's and lot's of alcohol). I spent the majority of my freshers week in the Engine Shed and various other clubs around Lincoln, then spent the day after reminiscing and getting myself ready for the night ahead, but what else do you expect of freshers week? I could go on and on about the drunken memories of freshers but I don't want to set a bad example for myself on my third blog post, and there were a lot. It doesn't just end at freshers either; my shot roulette game has become the centre piece of our kitchen table.

I choose to live in the university halls, mainly because I wanted to be with first years who were in the same situation as I was. My accommodation is pretty basic, but most university halls are so it's really not worth complaining about. I was not too impressed at first leaving my big double bed and a bath (I miss baths so much) especially since my breeze blocked room has a massive resemblance of a prison cell. However, with the help of many NME magazines, lots of blue tack and some photographs, I have made it look kind of presentable and less prison cell-like and sometimes it can be quite cosy.

Living with people you didn't know had to be the scariest part of the situation for me. Luckily there’s lot's of Facebook pages set up to help you find your future flat mates, unluckily for me I couldn't find mine. This meant, as I was sat in a packed car en route to Lincoln to start my new life, I couldn't help but worry about the fact that I could be living with five other people I didn't get on with. Luckily I've met a lot of friends and had some pretty amazing memories. 

So apart from writing news stories and essays and dragging myself out of bed to go to lectures, you know the obvious things you expect to do on a Journalism & PR course, I have become so lazy. I would like to warn any university newcomers to spend their time a lot more wisely than I have. The hours your actually in university seem to be rather sparse and you have a lot of free time on your hand, so if you’re a bit of a TV addict like me it's definitely not a good situation. I ended up re-watching the whole of Prison Break in an amount of time that is far too short for a normal person, becoming obsessed with Dexter not to mention the amount of awful 90's rom-coms floating around Netflix that I watched. Then again, this could just be me.

I would speak about the financial situation of university, but I have been one the unlucky people in the student loan department and am currently at the end of my overdraft with no money left, but this topic definitely gets me riled up and I think it deserves a blog post of its own.

All in all my first years been amazing, different but amazing. I can’t deny that I miss my family, my friends and boyfriend a lot, but I am lucky enough to live about an hour away and be able to go home and see them often. After nearly a year of alcohol, meeting new people, making new memories, lots of TV watching, more alcohol and a bit of work of course, I can not believe how fast its gone, and in only eight months ill be on to my second year, and moving in to a house (yes, I have a house, how grown up?) and starting new memories all over again.