Surviving Freshers

 Hi, and welcome to my first post. I hope you like it!

As anyone who has ever gone through the UK education system has probably heard, going to university is never easy. But I think our year definitely had a greater challenge than many other given the whole global pandemic situation. As such, Freshers has been a bit different this year.

Moving Away:

One of the things I struggled with the most was moving away from home. I had never spent more than a couple of weeks away from home before, and only ever a coupe of days away from my parents. So moving to university was always going to be tough. Throw in moving from a house so remote in the countryside GPS doesn't work properly to Manchester, England's 'Second City'; and the worry around having no idea when I would next be able to see my family or come home and it was a bit of a brutal transition. However, I do have some tips on how to handle some of these changes.

1. Bring favourite things from home. I wasn't able to sneak my cat into halls, but I did bring pictures of him. And my family. And my teddy. Just having a reminder that your aren't on your own and that home is in a sense with you can be really comforting for the first few days.
   
   
   
2. Try and join some group chats before you arrive. This was how I 'met' one of my flatmates before moving in and it really helped knowing that there was someone I already knew a bit there. It definitely helps when making friends if you've got someone who can do introductions.
3. Get a good nights sleep before move-in day. Seriously. I'm a night owl and I hate this one but move-in day is exhausting between carrying boxes and the emotions that seem to jump out of corners at you. So get that sleep!
4. Even if you just want to curl up on your bed, make yourself go out an socialise for a bit. You don't have to do it for long, but it really helps. Go make a cup of tea (or whatever drink you like, that point is to go make it) and sit in the kitchen with a packet of biscuits to share with your flatmates. Remember that group chat I was on about? Put the promise of free biscuits there and you will become the most popular person in that flat.
5. Get involved with Freshers events. Even with covid making it hard to meet other people in person I've had some great opportunities. You're probably going to find the first few days are weirdly empty, so try and fill them up as much as you can.
   
   
   

Getting Ready for Study:

It turns out I could probably have bought all of my stationary one I moved. If you have limited space, or want to have working hands the next day, leave stationary until you move. That stuff is heavy! 

Sort out your university IT early on. The university will send you all the information you need so read everything they send you carefully. (I had

a couple of occasions where I got very stressed before realising I had misread when the website went live). On this point, make sure you give the university an email address you can access easily as this is how they usually send you information before your university email is set up. (If you applied through UCAS, they will probably use that email). 

Once you have sorted out your IT you will probably be able to access your reading lists and the online library. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUY ALL  THESE BOOKS! Usually there will be a small section at the top of your reading list with one or two books that are recommended to buy for that course. Anything else you can probably access through the library. If this recommendation doesn't exist but you still want some books there's a fairly easy way of working out which books are probably the most important. Read through your reading lists for each module and see if there are any books that get mentioned again and again. Chances are these are your core texts and may be useful to have. Amazon is really good for finding good quality second hand textbooks if you want to keep the costs down a bit.

Oh and another thing to do is enrolling on your modules. Again, check when you can do this from. The slots are usually run on a first-come, first-served basis for optional modules, so it's best to get this completed as quickly as you can.

I hope this is of some help to you if you are about to start freshers. Remember, this is a really exciting time and everyone is in the same boat. Have fun!