So after all the expectation and hype of starting university it’s over! Freshers week is now at an end. I’m not sure about every other fresher but I was definitely given a lot of advice or rather told definitively what I would do and what would happen to me at my Freshers week. As someone who took a year out this came from all sides and seemed never-ending!
However, now that Freshers week is over for another year and I’ve survived without a scratch (but with quite a substantial bout of Freshers flu that just won’t budge!) I just thought that I would try to do some “myth-busting” and give you the low-down on the difference between the expectation and reality of my Freshers experience!
Right, so a couple of obvious expectations to start off with. As I’d seen on many a friend’s Facebook wall it was part of the “freshers package” as it were, to drink copious amounts of alcohol and/or (but most likely and!) embarrass yourself in front of your new flatmates and friends. It was all part and parcel of the experience.
To those who just aren’t used to drinking every day or even drinking at all, this can seem daunting and the phrase “Down it fresher!” may well fill you with dread! Contrary to my expectation, I learned that not everyone was the “go hard or go home” kind of drinker which over the course of the week we learned to appreciate and use to make our nights out more interesting. Basically, everyone’s experience and tolerance for experimenting with booze was different.
Another couple of things that I’d been told about Freshers week many, many times was that I wouldn’t sleep at all and would go clubbing every single night until dawn. However I learned that Freshers week was far more varied than I could have possibly imagined. It was not just clubbing nights but also the events in the day were not only popular but fun! Freshers fair and shopping in town for example!
Also there were so many different things going on every night from pub quiz nights, performances by S Club 7,music gigs, DJ sets to pirate foam parties, school discos and so much more! It’s far from all about clubbing and if anything from my personal experience, the best chats and jokes come from the breakfast’s the morning after, the explorations of town or the afternoon pints in the union bar (after going to meet people on your course after sitting in an induction lecture together wondering what on earth was going on).
You’ll meet so many like-minded and also very different people, that it’s almost like a “human buffet” that can give you a bit of indigestion with trying to remember so many people’s names, courses, residences and home towns! It’s information overload but it’s brilliant and exhilarating and an experience that you will probably never have again!
I think at the end of the day (however cheesy this may sound!) Freshers week is what you make of it. You can go and have a pint in the pub, or a cocktail or two in the Terrace bar for a night, or even go all out in the union or town until the sun rises.
Everything’s catered for and you’ll meet a tonne of great people along the way as long as you do what you want and enjoy it as you go!
Image Source:
Ella Sagar