“When I was a Fresher…”

I would be lying if I didn’t admit to being a self confessed workaholic. I did my work last year and it paid off. Unheard of for a first year? Don’t be so sure.

I started first year with the same collection of emotions most students experience: nerves, excitement, happiness and feeling slightly homesick (from up the road in Cheshire…).

However, what worried me the most was the anxiety that I may be slightly too keen for my studies in comparison to others.  I remember scaling the Guardian’s ‘The Fresher’ section and reading celebrities who felt intimidated at their first seminar. But look at them now! “That could be me!” I’d think to myself, as I romanticised what hard work and befriending John Ryland would be like.

I remember my first lecture and that is purely because there wasn’t meant to be a lecture. Around 10 students showed up to the massive lecture hall in the Kilburn building at 9am on  Monday morning, clasping Oroonko or whatever other highly exclusive yet seemingly dry read it was. I’d heard of people skipping lectures because they were too busy sleeping, but 10? Never mind, I thought. Let’s continue.

We all sat there anticipating what would happen next. Nothing. We then received a message from someone saying that lectures don’t start till the week after and that our timetables had in fact wrongly informed us of this. Great.

I over stretched myself slightly when it came to clubs and societies, but you never know what your niche may be until you try everything that you have even a slight interest in. I would say that finding one that really works for you and sticking with is probably the best solution.

Nerves mixed in with anticipation are all a part of the thrill of coming to Manchester. The size of the campus and the differing people around is enough to scare anyone, but that’s the charm of our city campus.

The hustle and bustle of Oxford road each morning as you make it into your lecture or the hush throughout Blue 3 in John Rylands will become engraved into your routine and trust me, after an almost four month summer, it’s nice to come back to it all.