Hit by elephants...
by Gareth Mogg
University; that symbol synonymous with experience, growing up and hard work. It is also a place with a surprise lurking at every single bend, waiting to pounce on you at any given opportunity. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless you are prone to suffer from spontaneous combustion at the simplest of shocks, which leads me to ask; what would I have wanted to have known before I went to University? What pearls of wisdom are there I can pass on, lying in the recesses of this ageing brain?
Firstly, let me get the formalities out of the way. I am a third year History student at Cardiff University. OK, now that’s over with, let me tell you a little bit about it. As with most universities, you learn all the details, and the apparent ins and outs of it from heaps loads of different websites, university prospectuses, and other such randomness that seem to clutter more space than is necessary. This is the image that is on the outside; remember what they say, never judge a book by its cover, no matter how colourful or rude.
Most people go into university knowing full well about the drinking culture associated with it, and it’s simply a given fact now that when you’re not studying, you’re doing something stupid and alcohol related. This isn’t something I wish I had known before, it’s something I always knew. I started university waiting for this to happen. So what did catch me by surprise? What do I wish I had been given a little warning about?
The first is simple. Freshers-bloody-flu. This hit like someone swinging a bag of elephants dressed in armour. So, you start university, you have a good week to acclimatise, meet new people, party insanely hard until each day blurs into the next, then suddenly, everything comes hurtling down like a balloon out of breath. And this isn’t some lame excuse for the flu, this is no man flu, this is serious! Freshers’ week is a lot more than just partying and feeling sorry for yourself.
Something else I could have been warned about was the crazy amounts of paper work that was probably once a large percentage of the Amazon rainforest. There I was thinking that I was going to be seemingly in a state of perpetual haziness, and then I was told to queue up for two hours and wait for someone to talk to me about finances. Begging your pardon, but all of this money is going to be gone soon, so let’s not worry about it.
The main point to make about freshers’ week, that isn’t expected is that no matter what people tell you about it, yours will be different. Essentially, the best advice I can give is, to dive straight in and make the most of what is given to you.
Oh, one last thing, nobody told me university would be embarrassing...you’ve been warned!
Last updated on: 02 April 2008