Finding your feet during freshers’

So the summer is over, your A levels are in the distant past and you’re ready for a brand new adventure here at the University of Warwick!

But now that you’ve arrived on campus what should you do? Where should you go? What should you avoid? Fear not young fresher for the Boar as ever is here to help.
The first thing that quite a few people have to realise is that moving away from home for the first time can be quite a disconcerting experience.

You may well have been desperately looking forward to getting away from your parents before you arrived, but after a few days of making your own breakfast, lunch and dinner things can take a turn for the worst, which is totally NORMAL.

I know that some of you have paid an awful lot of money to stay in that room, but you’re not going to make any new friends in there so open that door and go out and speak to people.

Yes, let me just repeat that one more time: this is FINE. One of my closest friends happens to be a huge, burly rugby player who has had his knee broken in a particularly vicious tackle, and yet he recently admitted to me that he cried for two hours every day in the first week after his parents had left him. If people like him can be reduced to a snivelling mess anyone can. However, there are ways to avoid this situation and getting out of your bedroom as much as possible in the first week is definitely one of them.

Now, before we go any further, I know that some of you have paid an awful lot of money to stay in that room, but you’re not going to make any new friends in there so open that door and go out and speak to people.

Societies are a great way to meet individuals who share your interests, whilst I’m reliably informed that the ‘Welcome Parties’ in the first week are, to quote one of my friends, ‘massive’; whatever that means.

The welcome parties are indeed ‘massive’

If you’re not into loud noise and confined spaces though there is always the quiz in The Dirty Duck, or The Terrace Bar both of which can be used for polite, civil conversation rather than head-banging to incredibly loud, often seemingly unintelligible songs in the Copper Rooms.

On a final note it can’t have escaped your attention that the University insists on having lectures, and in some cases seminars, in your first week.

These are predominately introductory affairs and focus on setting out what you can expect from your chosen modules, and allow you to meet the people who will be teaching you this year.
I am pleased to report they often require very little brain power and are more than intelligible on very little sleep, so they are worth going to, but please do not stress about your academic performance in the first few days.

Right now you need to work on finding your feet, establishing a good circle of friends and getting used to life at Warwick; keep that in mind and you won’t go far wrong. I wish you the very best of luck.

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Header Image courtesy of Flickr/ Hope For Gorilla

Body Image courtesy of Warwick Media Library