Being a fresher, again

The first year of university can be a daunting experience for many, whether you’re moving away from home or commuting. Luckily, this is my second time being a fresher. Last year I moved away from home and studied at Royal Holloway, in Surrey. Nonetheless I am back to being a fresher again.

Being a first year student at any university is always a little terrifying. Many of us have to learn about a completely new town or city, where our classes are, and most importantly make new friends – talking to new people and really throwing ourselves into the goings-on of the university to fully maximise the potential of meeting as many people as possible. Making friends can be a fast process at university as everybody is in the same boat. However, as the weeks go by I can guarantee you and I will find ourselves talking to those we did not speak to in the first few weeks.

Making the decision to commute to university as opposed to living in Cambridge was a tough one, although a smart financial choice. Commuting from King’s Lynn (which is a 46-minute train journey away, for those whose geographical skills are as terrible as mine) seemed fairly straightforward and easy. I never fully appreciated the troubles or first-world problems that many commuters encounter, until now. I have been lucky this semester in the respect that none of my classes begin before 11am, so I have plenty of time to begin and complete my coursework in the morning and on the commute (just kidding). Unfortunately though, the trains depart from my town at five to every hour, meaning once in Cambridge and dodging my way through the slow walkers and awkward people with big suitcases, (making me question why there are cycle lanes, but not lanes for slow walkers throughout Cambridge) I have roughly fifteen minutes to speed-walk to class.

For the first week I was a fool and walked (well, ran) from the train station to the university via the longest possible route. Up towards the small Subway (I assume everybody knows where this is), past Tesco and then down past the swimming pool towards Anglia Ruskin. This walk, given I have a fifteen minute window to get to university, takes an astounding twenty minutes. A hot and flustered fresher crashing into a lecture hall full of roughly 200 people is never a great feeling when you are that fresher.

Since then I have done what I should have done in the first place, and used my iPhone to give me the quickest possible route to the university from the station. It takes roughly two-and-a-half songs and I pass a much larger Subway (again, I assume you know where I mean).

Embarrassment aside, I feel I made a good choice in coming to Anglia Ruskin and studying a degree in Psychology. Although it is still only the first week, I still have time to disapprove of the amounts of coursework and APA referencing system.