Returning home for the Christmas holidays, I fielded all the expected questions. For example, I was asked every female, St Andrew student’s favorite question: “Have you found your prince?” After fake laughing that question off, my relatives, friends, and parent’s coworkers moved on to more mundane questions such as, “How was your first semester?” I quickly developed a ready response: “First semester was great! Classes were interesting. Met loads of lovely people.”
However, after repeating this over and over I found myself vaguely dissatisfied with my first semester. Don’t get me wrong- I had an amazing time and learned so much about myself. In fact, I felt myself growing every day. Yet I felt like I didn’t do enough. I went to classes, met people, went out, but I didn’t feel as if I added anything to the St Andrews community. So, I decided that for second semester I would focus on doing just that; I would focus on participating in activities that allowed me to better engage with the St Andrews community.
This is not to say that what I did first semester was wrong. I totally believe in using your first semester of university to get your bearings as it can be quite terrifying to figure out where your classes are, when is best to go to the gym, what are the best nights to go out, and who you want to spend your time with. Therefore, my advice to anyone feeling that his/her first semester was lack luster or missing something…go out and get involved in something you care about!
You can:
- Volunteer for a charity group
- Go to a society social
- Join a sport
- Go to a discussion group- I highly recommend Blue Stockings put on by FemSoc!
- Go to some of the many debates and talks speakers put on
I think it’s very easy to click “Interested” on every event you see on your Facebook Timeline, but personally I want to make a more genuine effort to actually go to those events that piqued my interest! Luckily, if an event doesn’t suit you, you don’t have to do it again. So, here’s to a more interesting semester!