University!
Apparently the best 3 years of your life. Well, not for us 2020 leavers. The Global Pandemic, which we have all come to know and love, has once again managed to ruin another part of our education, (like our A levels weren't enough).
University was meant to be the time to grow and mature, not only as a person but in academic studies as well. To say I was excited for uni was an understatement. When I was younger I couldn't think of anything worse than moving away from home, and having to live for myself, but when I was about 17 I realised it was the best thing for me.
But 2020 wasn't having any of it.
I knew that university wasn't going to be the same this year but, I was still willing to take that risk, and I had to think of my future and be selfish for once.
Anyway, enough of me rambling on, and onto the nitty gritty details of my experience so far.
So I arrived to university near the end of September, all big-eyed, bushy tailed and eager to be here. I unloaded the car, which we had 30 minutes to do, then started to unpack my room (which took 5 hours :). After unpacking I hung out with my flatmates for a bit, which was kinda scary at first, and then met up with my friend from school and her flatmates. We had a memorable night out, to say the least, but was cut a little short due to the 10pm curfew.
But who said that was going to stop us!
As I live on a campus uni, all the nights of freshers we used to walk around campus, through the fields and paths, and would meet loads of people on the way. This was honestly one of the highlights, just meeting people you probably would never have seen before and sharing social contacts to keep in touch. I have met some of my really good mates in here through chatting with them near staircases, or walking around campus together. I realise now how weird this sounds but, you got to make the most out of a rubbish situation, for want of a better word.
Lets just say I didn't have the conventional freshers experience, and there were definitely low and high points to the week, but I (however cringe it may sound) wouldn't have changed it. I did things that I would have never done before (lol) and experienced so many different things, which is ultimately what university is all about.
If only I could say this carried on ...
A couple of days later, after freshers week, and making plans to go to brunch with mates, and out to a club for ABBA night (I'm still so upset about missing this), I got put into isolation as 2 of my flatmates had symptoms of Corona, and then tested positive. This of course cannot be helped, and their health and our safety is what the university is prioritising, which they should. However that does not mean that it doesn't put a dampener on the fun we were having. I honestly didn't realise how much I took for granted the outside world, and just being able to go for a walk whenever I wanted. It sucks being able to look out of my window and see groups of people walking around campus, while I'm stuck in what feels like, a prison cell (although its very homely with lots of decorations, so maybe that's an exaggeration of some sort!) So plans of going out, cancelled, going to exercise, cancelled, even going to societies and meeting people, cancelled.
So my experience has definitely been that of positives and negatives. The first week, for which we will use the term 'freshers' loosely, was filled with myself and my flatmates walking around campus making friends, and drinking. Yes this does sound a bit dodgy, yes we didn't have any bars or pubs to go to, yes we didn't have any fun social events to attend, but no we didn't let this stop us. I ended up making really close friends with not only my flatmates, but also people in other kitchens and other halls of residence. Also during 'freshers' there were so many taster sessions for sports societies that I attended, which was not only in person (bonus) but also filled with other new people to meet. This was another thing that made me busy, and feel like an actual uni student, because it was some normality compared to everything else being online.
However, because of the pandemic, no one really knows what is going on, and rules, regulations, and timetables are kind of getting made up on the spot, due to the "unknown". In the first week we had introductory talks with members of the department who were honest and truthful in that even they may make mistakes in relation to technology and meetings, due to this being the first time something like this has ever happened. This was encouraging to know that no one is in this alone, we are here as a community together trying to take it a day as it comes.
I guess that was my experience, which will be very different from all of my mates at home, so come Christmas time I cannot wait to go back and catch up with them, and share different stories which I know we will all laugh about :)
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