By Megan Graham
After three long months of watching Desperate Housewives reruns on 4OD and staying in bed until one in the afternoon while I waited for term to start, I was pretty chuffed two weeks ago to finally, FINALLY, become a fresher at York. Four days in, and I was surprised to find that a lot of the time, being a fresher at York consisted of watching Desperate Housewives reruns on 4OD and staying in bed until one in the afternoon. Oh.
Every newspaper that circulated on campus last week included articles dishing out wisdom to freshers like myself. And every one of them confirmed my belief that uni was going to be one of the most exciting times of my life.
Why then, had I not screamed in excitement when Eggnog Quig launched into another Busted number? Lovely as my housemates are, how was I already getting slightly sick of spending my days sitting in the kitchen with them eating pasta and Dolmio?
There were a lot of expectations that I’d had of university, and many of them turned out to be true. I have met some amazing people, who I already feel like I have known for years. I have drank so much that the thought of kneeling in goose poo has had me literally rolling on the floor with laughter and I have enjoyed every minute of my lectures, as I should, considering they’re costing me £20 apiece!
I also expected to spend most of my time with people who’d had the same experiences as me, to be presented with chances to do new things as they arose and to be guided by the university every step of the way.
I’ve learnt a lot during my short time here, and it seems to me that the key to university life isn’t really about knowing the intricacies of poetic metre, or what a genome is, or who Matthew Paris was. Rather, it is about meeting people who’ve done things and been places you’ve never even thought about, and being able to learn from them, and share some stories of your own. It’s about depending on yourself to find the opportunities available and make them attainable, rather than waiting for a parent or a teacher to suggest them to you. Go out and find something to do and you’ll stop overdosing on carbs, whilst waiting for opportunities to land in your lap.
Scarily, I have realised that being at university is almost, kind of, a little bit, like being a grown up and that wasn’t what my eager, fresh from college, duvet-clutching self was expecting two weeks ago at all!
Now, I am older, wiser. I have been to lectures; I have been to Flares and although I still don’t quite know where Wentworth is, I am (I think) no longer the fresher I was when I arrived. A bit like the cheese I found at the bottom of our fridge the other day, I am older, more mature, and a little less hygienic than I was a fortnight ago.
As the collection of mugs of old hot chocolate by my bed suggests, while I’m maybe not a fully fledged adult, I just might have this student lark down!