So for this week’s blog, I’m going to talk to you about my first few weeks as a fresher at City; or as I like to think of it- my first official month as a half-adult. I was dragged kicking and screaming from my stroppy teenage hole of a bedroom into my own room, kitchen and bathroom abandoned in the middle of central London all on my own… Not that I’m bitter or anything. Don’t get me wrong, before the 12th of September 2015 I thought I was so ready to take on the world; the big move to the other side of the country, taking on the enormous responsibility of bringing peoples babies into the world- these things barely kept me up at night. But as I sat on the floor of my new room surrounded by 3 suitcases, 9 boxes and a pile of shiny and new kitchen equipment (I have never traveled light) I felt like the responsibility of my life had suddenly come crashing down on my head.
It was at this point that I had my first university cry. Not even 10 minutes in and I was blubbering like a baby. I am not ashamed to say that this was the first of many almost emotional breakdowns I have enjoyed over the last year and a half of university life and I am one of the lucky ones. With my partner hundreds of miles away and my family even further starting life at a different university , for the first time in my life I found myself knowing no one.
No words can describe the fear a fresher feels that first time they walk into the communal area of their residential halls that first night. There’s no taking back a first impression and it’s very hard to bond with a room full of people who are all trying not to speak too much, laugh too loud or crack too many jokes for fear of being rejected by a room full of total strangers. Luckily for me, the nervous smiling faces that greeted me that first day would turn out to be some of the greatest people I would encounter in my first year. I believe the stress and anxiety of trying to survive living on your own without burning down your kitchen making a pizza is enough to bond even the most contrary of personalities but to meet a group of people who you can rely on to laugh when you laugh and cry when you cry is the biggest blessing at university. A year on and we’ve moved out of the loud busy and very messy student halls into our own 5 bedroom house in Harringay as greater friends than I could have ever have wished for- lucky me!
The first few weeks of university were an enormity of firsts; the first time I had to unblock the hair from my own shower plug, the first time I got on a megabus and survived it, the first time I had to register at a GP on my own and the first time I realised I have to pay for the dentist? And at the top of my list, the first time I brought life into the world- and the first but definitely not the last time I thanked god for the way my life was going.
Starting life as a fresher in a new city with new people in a new environment was the hardest quest I’ve had to conquer to date and yet like every student up and down the country I wouldn’t change a single moment. Excuse the clique but I cannot deny that the last year has shaped me into the person that stands before you now more than I could have ever imagined and I am so proud of myself for getting this far. And its only taken me 18 months to learn how to use a washing machine- not bad I reckon.
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