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Friday 21 August 2015

Wishing I was fresher once more!


In about a month's time I shall be heading back to the Costa Del Cov and starting my third year of university. It is unbelievable to think that I am now at my final year and that two years of uni life are now behind me. But as I reflect on what has happened in the last two years and look ahead to what is to be a hard working third year, something quite prominent comes to mind.

I want to be a fresher again!

With my younger brother being accepted into university, I am finding myself going through a sort of deja vu phase. The applying for accommodation, the fears of making mates, the joining of numerous facebook pages about freshers week; all reminds me of myself two years ago. But what I never anticipated was how amazing first year was going to be. And I don't think it is until now that I fully realise how amazing it really was.

I have to admit my nerves were very low. I had become quite bored of my surroundings and was craving some sort of new experience. Something that put me out of my comfort zone but also allowed me to enjoy the independence. I wanted to get drunk, play rugby and just not give a shit about anything too serious. And I did!
Fresh faced as fresehers

I was lucky enough to make mates extremely quickly at uni. In fact, within 20 minutes of moving in I bumped into some lanky twat from Manchester who was trying to meet someone who was on my floor. This lanky twat is still living with me as I go into third year. Myself, the Manc and a lass from Barnsley all then ventured out onto our first night of freshers with myself not understanding much of what they were saying.



The Manc and I pretending to pull
What followed was a blurry fortnight of endless drinking and hungover lectures. The three of us became good mates as we tried to take Coventry by storm and along the way we assembled a group of about 10 who all lived in the same Halls, the majority of us still being best mates to this day.

The rest of the year continued in this fashion apart from going out 2-3 times a week instead of 7. I also joined the university rugby union team and this took a majority of my time, either by training or playing or getting ridiculously paralytic at socials. I was in my eyes, living the dream.

However, within about a month or so, the first coursework deadline came up...

It hit hard amongst the group that we were actually at uni for a reason; to get a degree.

Quickly everyone got their heads down and cracked on. For me, my first essay was entitled 'Discuss to what extent Carr's style of delivery reflects the features discussed in the chapter on humour in Thorne's Book Masting Advanced English language.' 

The formality of the title made my bowels move in an unnatural way and I dreaded the thought of writing an academic essay. It required me to learn a new format of writing, a new approach to researching articles to support my argument and the worst of all, CU Harvard Referencing! <I won't explain this, it will either bore you or terrify you but in essence, it is as about fun as having to witness your genitalia being removed.

I worked extremely hard on this and just about got a first in it. However, what we all then realised was that first year didn't go towards our degree and all we needed to do was pass, this being an achievable 40%. We then went into every essay slightly more lighthearted and knew that we didn't need to be too concerned with it. This is certainly not the case anymore.

Work has taken absolute priority over everything else and it means that sometimes I do need to say 'sorry guys, can't come out. Got work to do'. Granted this is rare but I worry that this is to become the norm when I'm in third year. 

I miss the days of being able to think of when we could next get drunk and not whether I have done enough work for the day. I miss the relaxing nature of going to lecturers, knowing you didn't need to give absolute focus in them to know what's going on. I miss thinking, 'I've got two more years of uni left!' But most of all I miss being a fresher in general. I want to be reckless in my actions and free of any care of judgement upon me. I guess now all I can do is look at the freshers of 2015 with envy and hatred, knowing the little shits won't appreciate the position they are in.


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