The first few weeks at university are always difficult for Freshers. There’s the pressure to have the ‘best time of your life’ and new friends to make, but for some, it’s the little things that have been the struggles over this past month. I’ll be delving into my top 5 fresher fails to reassure students that they are not alone; that surely, others have made the same mistakes…?
1. Locked ourselves out
Long gone are the days when parents were responsible for the house keys – now it’s up to you! Whether you’re nipping out to check your post or grab a pint of milk, your keys have got to come along as well. Being locked out can be a right laugh when you’re with a friend, even if they’ve forgotten their keys too. You can frantically bang on the door together, mock one another’s stupidity…oh yeah; it’s all fun and games until you’re locked out on your own. Hysterical knocking is much less acceptable if you’re by yourself, as is screaming for your flatmates to let you in – especially when you’ve only known them for a week.
2. Had a cooking disaster
Why is it that parents can conjure up entire banquets when we students are struggling with meals consisting of one single component? In the kitchen, multitasking becomes a long forgotten skill, and even toast becomes difficult. The amount of times I’ve walked into the kitchen to the smell of burnt toast, seen burnt toast in the bin, even eaten burnt toast, is quite frankly ridiculous considering we’re all adults here.
3. Attended the wrong lecture
Another classic – somehow I managed to do this twice in one week and it wasn’t any less embarrassing the second time. At first, all is well. Your pen and paper are at the ready and you’re fully prepared for your introductory lecture to linguistics. Everyone settles down and the lecturer opens the power point to a slide that reads: Year 2 – Philosophy. Oh. By the time you’ve recovered from the shock and mentally prepared your escape route, the lecturer is in full swing and you’re trapped in between two second year students who certainly don’t look like the forgiving types. (At least after sitting through the lecture you can be completely certain that you don’t want to change your degree).
4. Gone absolutely mental on our first food shop
Finally, you can do a weekly shop and buy whatever you damn well please! You give the fruit and veg aisle a sarcastic wave as you hurtle past it with your trolley, and stock up on ice cream, bread and all things bright and beautiful…Unfortunately, two days later you realise this was a mistake as you feel like you should probably eat something green to avoid an imminent death, so you go back to the shop to buy all the things your mum would.
5. Signed up to a club we’ll never go to
Freshers’ Fairs are really exciting, and of course, you’re encouraged to try new things and join as many clubs as possible, but only when it’s all over do you realise you’ll probably only attend two, maybe three of the twenty eight societies you picked up leaflets for. A few days later you’re receiving emails from the Cactus Appreciation Society, Facebook notifications from Lego Lover’s Union, and it begins to dwell on you that you may have been a little too generous when giving out your contact details…
Whether you’ve made all of these mistakes or none of them, never be afraid to make more! Who knows, you might even want to write about them…!