Freshers. One of the most exciting words to enter the mind of a wide eyed teenager working towards the end of their college education. The culmination of two years of work in college is to scrape the grades needed to get into their subject of choice at their chosen university. Once they’ve achieved the bare minimum required to get in, the real excitement starts. Forget budget planning and getting essential items, the conversation turns to the clubs they’ve scouted in their area that offer the most exciting entertainment in the first two weeks of university life.
New groups of people forced together through sharing a grotty student flat congregate in their temporarily clean kitchens to sink pre-drinks to get over their inhibitions before hitting the dance floor. The loud music and bright lights of the city dazzle for the opening two weeks before becoming an expensive oasis in the desert, but for those two weeks the freshers are untouchable kings of the city.
For the reasons stated above I am absolutely dreading the prospect of freshers this month. I’m 24 years old. As much as people have repeated the cliché to me over the last few months that “you’re never too old for university”, frankly, I probably am. Those that know me know that I have a mental age of around 56. This is not ideal when you’re preparing to embark on a university course with the doe eyed teenagers that look forward to freshers week, six years after I last attended college.
First and foremost, I’m not a big fan of clubs in general. I don’t like the fact I have to pay to get in and to hang up my coat. I don’t like the music that gets played at conventional clubs and I don’t like the volume at which it is played. I don’t like the fact I have to pay in excess of £4 for a bottle of Budweiser or Carlsberg because I don’t want to spend the night drinking shots of tequila or vodka and lemonade just because they’re on special offer for students. I don’t like shouting the same anecdote in someone’s ear four times because they can’t hear me. I don’t like the humourless baboons that are hired as bouncers and I don’t like dancing. Give me a good traditional pub any day.
Second, I’m not the best person at meeting new people. This is something I have improved over the last few years but I’m still undeniably awkward at meeting people for the first time. It’s not some sort of underlying trust issue I have, but I like to figure people out before I put my chips on the table. Once you get to know me I like to think I’m pretty good company, but for the first few meetings don’t be surprised if I seem a little wary or reserved. It will pass.
Thirdly, mental age aside, I’m going to freshers as a mature student that will be six or seven years older than a lot of the people around me. You have to take things like this into account when you’re planning various aspects of living in student accommodation. I knew that when I was choosing my room, it would have to have an en suite bathroom. Partly this was for my own sake so I didn’t have to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and tiptoe around a pile of vomit and passed out teenagers to have a quick piss. But perhaps more so I was selflessly aware that the teenagers I could potentially be sharing with might walk into the shared bathroom one morning and stare in disgust at the old man that lives with them trying in vain to shave his back while they’re trying to spray their hair or whatever young people do these days.
Finally, and probably most importantly for someone brought up in the north of England, the simple cost of freshers is enough to make me sweat. I’ve spent the last six years working full time for a betting firm. I’ve been an assistant manager in the branch for the last five years. Over that time period I reckon I’ve earned around £80,000. Of that sum I have saved precisely £775 to take to university. It’s not something that I’m particularly proud of, but I’ve had a hell of a time and some great memories over the last six years.
That being said, I’m now going to be living on the breadline for the next three years. My maintenance loan will just about cover the rent. Student Finance Wales have kindly given me a grant of £79 that I don’t have to pay back. I am grateful for it but I don’t really understand why they’re paying it to me in three instalments. On top of that I’m going to have to work a part time job to be able to eat and live. I really, really cannot afford to spend the first two weeks of my university life partying away what little money I actually have,
Through the clouds of negativity, I have conjured up that there is a big shiny light beaming through that is university life itself. Once freshers is over, everyone will be too poor to go clubbing during the rest of the year so I’ll be able to quietly segue into finding a decent local pub that I can go to with like minded new friends that I will make. Despite my social inhibitions, I know I’m going to make new friends in university. It’s almost impossible not to in such an environment. The fact I’m going at 24 is probably not as big a deal to other people as I presume it is. A lot of my best friends are younger than me so I guess I’ll be well prepared for spending time with that demographic both in my accommodation and on my course.
So I guess if you’re reading this my advice for freshers starting this month, just get through the first two weeks. If you enjoy it, great! Have an absolute blast, it’s what those two weeks are there for. If you don’t enjoy it, it doesn’t matter; chances are the next three years of your life are going to be the best experience of your life so far. Soak it all up, make new friends and do your best to make something of your life.
And the money? I figure it’ll work itself out somehow. If not, I’ll have to sell my body parts on the black market to survive. Doubt my liver will be worth much by October though.
By Harry Freebe
thelvecollective.wordpress.com 