MY story of Freshers' Week

I wrote most of this post (unconsciously chucking in a rhyme there...mark of a language student) in about Week 3 of my first term, to try and make sense of the beautiful chaos that is Freshers Week. Looking back on it now, it was an insane time…uni generally is pretty intense, but Freshers is on a WHOLE other level! Which is unsurprising really…a few thousand 18-19 year olds from all over the world thrown together, all with very different life experiences and worldviews, yet for most of which this is their first attempt to live as an independent adult away from the support of family and friends, and then told to go and 'mingle' (a word I was completely sick of by the end of the week) at the huge numbers of getting-to-know-you events organised. Add to this an average of 4 hours sleep a night, homesickness, freshers' flu and trying to get used to living in just one room instead of a whole house and you have the makings of a very hectic week for all involved!

No matter whether people have been to uni or not, everyone has some nugget of wisdom to pass on to you as an expectant first year; get involved in everything, be selective in your society choices, make sure you get into a study routine in first year, use first year as a chance to try new things because it doesn’t count to your degree…its easy to feel overwhelmed. Now don’t get me wrong, as a first year who has come out the other side of Freshers and therefore considers herself an expert on all things university, I have my own gems which I am waiting to bestow on the less experienced; but all this advice can make it hard to know whether you are doing Freshers Week the ‘right’ way or not.

I definitely didn't appreciate just how exhausting Freshers would be; I was physically tired, and emotionally drained from having to constantly be sociable when really all I wanted to do was go home, curl up in my pyjamas with a cup of tea and watch Harry Potter with my family...but it's also so exciting. For the first time in my life I was truly making it on my own, and I have never been more aware of God holding me in His hand, and of His going before me. The one thing that really held me together that week was knowing that God had prepared the way for me, and that He was so close to me and understood me even when I felt like no one knew me at all. This foundation is what gave me the courage to slow down a bit, relax (to an extent: I was still totally terrified), and know that I would - in time - meet my friends. And, shockingly, I did.

So my best advice for surviving the jungle that is your first few weeks at university? Do what you want to do when you want to do it, take care of yourself, cherish the good bits whilst accepting and moving on from the bad bits, and trust God above everything. Take it one day at a time, and before you know it you’ll be dishing out your own advice.