I thought this week, whilst social distancing, I'd write out tips and tricks for those heading to university in September.
The first thing I should let you all know is to simply enjoy yourself (original I know); there's a lot of things to do during the first few weeks of university that you can say yes to- including freshers week. Freshers week could quite possibly be the craziest week of your life. The number one rule of freshers week is to scrap the wristband buying- unless you've already planned on events to go to with flatmates or course mates and you've got £30 to waste, the whole wristband thing is a little pointless.
The main priority of freshers week is to get to know the people around you- especially flatmates. These are the people you're going to be living with for the better half of a year and so getting to know them is the best thing. Obviously during the first few weeks, you never really find out who doesn't take the bins out, and who puts the bins from there room into the kitchen bin (the complete bane of my life. Period.) However, during the first few weeks if you get to know the people your living with; you can tell them to take the bins out in a rather passive aggressive manner over group chat- always a plus.
For those staying at home, try going out with people from your course, your course mates will probably be going out with their flatmates; who you'll be introduced too- and you'll meet people on your nights out. These people, you might not speak to in your day to day life, but if you're about to pay in Primark or ordering a drink at a club, they could remember you and give you mates rates (*Please don't take this as a definite, some people are nicer than others*) - another plus.
Going out in the first few weeks of University life is important, you can find people who may become you're closest friends, you'll understand you're uni night life (the best places to go on what day of the week), and whether you really are a lightweight or not.
The second tip to know going into uni is that pasta is your best friend. From my experience, I came to university with next to no cooking skills and while I've pushed myself out of my comfort zone, making a decent spicy vegetable fried rice, pasta has been my one and only. Under the circumstances at the moment; I'm glad I've travelled back home, I've got no idea what I would've done if I couldn't get my hands on some pasta (just a side note: PLEASE stop panic buying!) Pasta is a really simple meal that can be made, and is a really good lunch for when you've realised the uni cafes charge an awful lot for a cheese and onion sandwich. A special shoutout must go to my Mum and Auntie, they've given me the pasta bake recipe they swear by and has brought me significant amount of joy over the last 7 months.
The final tip I'm going to end on is a simple reminder; Life at home doesn't stand still. It sounds silly, I'm aware, but for some reason I thought nothing major would change while I was away, in my circumstances, I was wrong.
Life does move on, and you come back home during reading week or at Christmas and suddenly it feels like you've been away for the past 5 years. I came home 5 weeks after moving away to attend the funeral of my Grandma; she was the most hardworking woman, with a contagious laugh, and she always felt like home. Just when I thought I was getting settled, it was like a bomb had gone off and I was back at the beginning.
Now, this isn't going to happen to everyone, and it's not something I wanted to bring people down with. But I wanted to let people know that life carries on, and the most important thing you must do at university is keep in touch with people you really care about. Make family and friendship group chats- if you've not heard of someone for a few days, send them a message, ring them up- cliche I know, but you never know what can happen.
On that note, I'm going to leave my first official blog post here, I've really enjoyed explaining a few of the tips and tricks I've found during my first year of university, I'll be making sure to write a few more of these posts of more information I can give out to those heading to or thinking about university.
In these uncertain times, I want to spread as much positivity as possible, remember to do what makes you happy, despite being stuck indoors or socially distancing yourself, you can find out much more about who you are. We will get through this, it may take a while, but I have faith we can get through anything. We're in this together and as radios across Europe congregated with "You'll Never Walk Alone" last week, we'll move through this together, with no end in sight, we keep moving, keep walking, because even in the toughest of times, we carry on.
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