Over three months ago, a
Saying goodbye - Undoubtedly, this is the hardest part of University (by far.) There are no tips of how to make a goodbye any easier, because fundamentally, goodbye is never easy, but sometimes, it has to be done.
Stepping out of your comfort zone - A quote which has forever resonated with me is one from the film The Greatest Showman: 'the comfort zone is the enemy of success.' Honestly - How. True. Is. This. Without being brave and stepping away from what you know and what you're used to, then how can you find your true self? For me, this step was probably one of the hardest because my comfort zone is somewhere where I am safe and secure, I hate change, moving to University, away from what I know and love, was so difficult.
Missing home - The first week is always not as bad as you first think it will be, if I'm being honest, you rarely think of home because you are kept so busy by the University - whether that is through your course, or through making new friends in your accommodation. Without this, I feel like the first week would be really hard, but, meet as many new people as possible and go out as much as you can as this is how you meet new people. By the time you get to maybe around the fifth week mark you miss home so frickin much and there's nothing you'd rather do than be at home with your family. A tip from me is just to visit home when you want to - some people go home every weekend and some don't go at all, it is completely up to you but don't feel obliged to stay at University because everyone else is.
The workload in the first week and how it is different to A-Levels - The first weeks workload comes as a bit of a shock. University learning is completely different to A-Level learning, but with that said, I don't think that it's any harder. A lot of University learning is reading and it is up to you as to how much information you take from it, some of the reading is more challenging than others too. University lecturers will know that this is all new to you and they will go through it all to try and make the transition as easy as possible for you.
You will have a lot of free time on your hands - Learning to enjoy your own company at University is one of the biggest life lessons you are forced to learn. University is perceived to be a 24/7 party/social event where everyone is having a great time together, and yes, there are many occasions where this is the case. However, University can be an extremely lonely place (especially on a Sunday afternoon when everyone seems to be sleeping or
Feeling settled in a different place - You're in a different room, in a new place. People tell you that it should feel like home, but it just doesn't yet. My best advice is to bring small, but meaningful things from home. For example I brought some electric tea lights (which makes my room feel so cosy) and my mum also brought me a few ornaments which look cool, and at the same time, remind me of her. My mum and I picked out pretty much everything for my new room, so everything reminds me of her. If your room still doesn't feel like home, print off some photos of your friends and family from home, and put them up in your room - if you're feeling down you can simply look at them and remember the good memories associated with them as cliche as it sounds...
Making friends - I'm going to now say the most overused phrase by people before you start University: you're all in the same boat. But, it's true, everyone is in the same boat, they are just as scared that they're not going to make friends as you are. The best advice I can give here is to simply speak to as many people as is humanly possible in Freshers week, this way you have a lot of 'contacts' and you can decide who you really like/want to spend your time with later on.
Accepting that not everyone is like you - Obviously you will meet people from different walks of life , and half of the battle is accepting that everyone is different and they will have their different views and opinions. At home I am friends with people who are scarily similar to me, so coming to University I thought that I would mix with people like myself, but honestly the opposite has happened. Now, my friends consist of people completely different, and I see that as a good thing - as much as I love my friends from home who are like me in every way, it is also refreshing to be around people who are different too.
These are the main points I can think of at the minute. I hope these tips are helpful - I would have loved to have known little pointers like these from a current student before I started Uni this year, it certainly would have prevented me from worrying about every little thing before I arrived here. Everything will be okay...
All the love x