It had been said to me over and over again, but I never really believed it until I experienced it myself: time at university flies. It feels odd even to write that I am entering my second year because, in my mind, Iâm still that nervous fresher having no idea what to expect. But first year is indeed over and I have a few reflections on it, both positive and negative, that I thought would be helpful advice both to anyone at a similar stage, and anyone starting their first year unsure.
Not to start on that negative, but there are a few things from first year I regret and, notably, they usually revolve around something I didnât do rather than what I did. Take that as a sign!
1. Isolating myself
In second term, I found that my âdo everything and say yes to everythingâ attitude of first term had melted away with Christmas, and I began to stop doing things. Reaching out to friends, attending societies regularly etc, and looking back that was a really bad sign for my mental health.
After Easter break I had a bit more energy and things got a lot better, but I wish I could go back and tell my past self not to do this! I know itâs hard, but keeping going and not hiding away is vital.
2. Not taking full advantage of my surroundings
I think everyone can agree that starting university is overwhelming, especially if you have moved to a new place as I did. However, the other more positive side of that is this new place is ripe for exploration, both your uni city and the surrounding area. I did definitely do lots of exploring, but over time it became easier to stick to campus/my immediate surrounding area. Aberdeenshire is such a beautiful place and the more I see of it the more I am so happy I chose to come here.
But I promise the positives are there!
1. Living independently
In comparison to others I didnât find this too hard to adjust to, independence is great, although of course itâs lovely to still keep in touch with family and enjoy the time spent at home in the holidays. Still, living on my own for the first time was always going to be daunting and felt extremely weird for the first few weeks of first year. Now I look back and am extremely proud of myself for being able to adjust in this way.
2. Making connections
Itâs perhaps clichĂ© advice to say âjoin a societyâ but seriously, do it. Getting involved in so many things that I have loved for so long â writing, making art, watching films, learning about history outside of pure academics â with a community has been invaluable. I am very glad I got stuck in with this in first year, forming these connections with other people in the process, which otherwise I donât tend to do very easily. I maybe didnât take advantage of this as the year went on, but getting back into them now at the start of second year has made me realise how good it is to get involved.
Above all, what I realised and reflected on when writing this article is the amount of pressure I felt to get everything in first year right the first try. There is such a culture of advice when it comes to starting university that people throw at you, which I found, more than anything, rather unhelpful
It makes you feel you need to do all these things, to completely reinvent yourself â which isnât necessarily possible or even the best thing for you. In fact, living a âperfectâ life no matter what stage you are at is most definitely impossible. What really matters is that youâre here, and youâre trying, and that is the most important advice I can give.
