A First Year Summary

[Super Important: My blog posts have not been posting to the Bloglovin platform, so if you follow me on there, it is unlikely you will have read my last 2 blog posts!]

I have just completed my first year of university. I feel like I blinked in Freshers week and woke up in May, with 9 months of studying under my belt. The thought of university in August filled me with terror, I was absolutely petrified of saying the wrong thing, not making friends, not enjoying my course or all of the above. To put it into perspective, I moved to Italy for 6 months in 2014, and I was more scared of moving 2 hours up the road to uni than to Parma. I know, I can't make any sense of it either.

I thought I'd do a look back post, potentially so that future, 3rd year me, can look back at this and reminisce. First year is all about plunging in head first, meeting as many people as you can, trying out every society going, attempting any and every sport and most essentially, playing harder than you work because it doesn't actually count towards your final degree in the UK (hooray)!






I pretty much won the flat lottery when it came to university. Everyone panics about being with bitchy girls, laddy guys who make a mess out of everything or the international students who you can't interact with. But as far as flats go, we did ridiculously well. As all of us took gap years, we all had an immediate connection and out of the 8 of us in the flat, 5 of us are living together next year too (so we must've liked each other a bit). 





Please note the swimming costumes in the above photo! I've always said, when I joined uni I wanted to throw myself into everything and anything. And I definitely think I did as best a job I could of that. I played Netball on the Olympic courts with the England Netball Team, I became the Marketing Director of Enactus Royal Holloway, I became a swimming surrogate member (essentially everyone knew me and I go to all the socials but I am a terrible swimmer so don't actually do the swimming part...). I even have a term time job at the late night coffee and bubble tea shop on campus. 








If I put up every photo of myself and my friends from the last year, we'd be here all day. In fact, probably for a solid 2 or 3 days. When you leave school, it's hard to imagine meeting people and making as strong, if not stronger, bonds with those you haven't known for years. I've made amazing friends through extra curricular activities, through my course, and just general drunken bonding with friends of friends. Part of the appeal of university is that you're never alone, there's always a friend who is nearby. I'm pretty much sure I found my soul mates in the girls I live with. Can you believe the last photo was taken on our very first day of meeting? I think we look like we've been friends for years.

I absolutely could write a bit about my course, but after finishing 12 hours of exams literally within an hour ago, I'm not sure I want to think about my course for another solid 3 months. None the less, every second of hard work has been utterly justified. I know I could have taken another route, I could have done more travelling or I could have gone straight into work. Some people don't understand it at all, but university really works for me and I am having the time of my life. 



Here's for the next 2 years at Hogwarts (ok, Royal Holloway)...
Ciao for Now!
x

3 comments

  1. Love this post! I've been feeling so nervous about the whole uni experience and I still have a year to go before I'm there but reading this has calmed my nerves down! Turning 18 and applying to Uni's has just felt so weird but it's exciting at the same time! I can't wait to meet lots of people and experience so many new things! Looks like you're having an amazing time :)

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  2. Definitely saw your university shortly mentioned in that new Avengers movie (and I wasn't 100% sure it was yours or someone else's) This looks like it's been so much fun! I moved universities and I'm so glad that I did! I hope you have a great summer! Can't wait for new blog posts! :) xx
    Kenzie
    Behindhazeleyes06.blogspot.com

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  3. Congrats on finishing!! I'm in the position you where a year ago, being all nervous about the whole experience, but reading this (and I love all your other posts about uni too) has made me quite excited about the prospect of meeting new people, even though I'm pretty quiet. Also, I love that you've thrown yourself into everything, it's made me want to do that same thing because it appears to open up brilliant opportunities. Thank you for sharing : )

    Kathryn | nimblenote.blogspot.com

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