Surviving a Warwick October

They say a week is a long time in politics. Though it’s probable that the first person to utter this maxim would have agreed that, comparatively, a week is a giant epoch during freshers’ week. If you are a first-year student, hopefully you’ll be setting into your halls by now – put a few posters up and either unpacked or decided this year it’ll be more efficient to live out of a suitcase. Additionally, you’ll have overcome those chilly nights sleeping under a paper-thin blanket because you failed to realise the rooms didn’t come with a duvet.

If you’re not a fresher, but haven’t yet drunk enough to completely wipe out your long-term memory, you’ll remember how significant the first week of university seemed to be. Bonds could initiate from anywhere, whether it was two people both being sick under a bush outside the Student’s Union, a few simultaneously mystified as to where their introductory lectures were, or even over a loud discussion at four in the morning about the merits of Marxist philosophy. Catchphrases could spark up from a seemingly insignificant event like a broken egg whisk and if you hadn’t got back from the library before six, your kitchen’s whole conversation could go over your head while they used a whole different language that had only started that morning.
The intensity of the first few weeks of university is such that friendships seem stronger and mistakes appear bigger as we are all squeezed together in small kitchens and common rooms, tiny nightclubs and cramped, musty seminar rooms. Friends from home seem so far away and more often than not, they’re having a fantastic time going to gigs seeing bands that wouldn’t step foot inside the Warwick SU. The pressure is on to have an even more amazing time, never mind the fact that your next-door neighbours are a bunch of weirdos and you’re certain someone keeps taking your cheese from the fridge.

Before you got to uni, you meant to join lots of societies, from handball to Thai cooking. But time passes so quickly and it’s difficult to balance your time between Karate, History Society, Amnesty, that game of Ring of Fire everyone’s going to be playing in the kitchen, phoning mum and dad, baking a cake for a hallmate’s birthday and a thousand effing pages of reading for your course. Wouldn’t it be easier to just stay in bed and work off that hangover, maybe getting up in the evening and starting on that foul bottle of wine you bought for two quid at Tescos?
Time passes quickly during the first few weeks, but so much happens and so many opportunities can be grabbed or pass you by, that these weeks seem can seem like a decade. So what to do during these crazy few days? Lots of student help books will try to give you conflicting advice, like “go with the flow” but “make sure you be yourself”. The Boar can offer little counsel, as our writers probably did it all wrong anyway, but we can recommend that you follow a few rules.
Don’t think that if you use other people’s cutlery all the time they won’t notice. Using someone else’s spoon can be a devastating blow to your social standing if you don’t ask. Make a timetable if you haven’t already. Writing lecture times on the back of your hand is unlikely to be viable as a long- term option, particularly if you plan to shower regularly this year. Remember that though the first couple of weeks seem like the most important ones, it’s likely they’ll seem less significant by the end of this term. Bonds can be broken and real friendships take time to develop. Missed work can be caught up on and societies can be joined later on in the year. Though make sure if you think you’ve got a talent, don’t be afraid to put yourself forward.

If you do have some spare time, come to the Boar! As well as looking for writers, we have an opening for a budding Matt Groening to join the team and provide us with some topical cartoons. If you think you’d like to give it a crack, speak to us at the societies’ fair or send an email to comment@theboar.org.

Have fun but don’t feel under pressure to have to have fun. You’ve got all year for that.