There’s no escaping it… it’s nearly time for ‘Back to School’. The shop windows have got the stationary signs up, that’s always a cry that term time is drawing up.
I used to hate this time of year when I was at school, I hated the early mornings, I hated my teachers, but most of all…. I loathed maths! It gave me nightmares!
But now I’m at uni, and I may be on my placement year, but I love it. I am having such a blast at uni, and I thought, seeing as a few of you may be heading to uni soon, I would share some of the reasons why going to uni was the best thing for me to do…
1. The People
Cheesy, yes, but the people I’ve met are fab, and I’m lucky enough to call a few of them my friends. If you’re just heading to uni for the first time you are in for a treat. There’s such a mix of people, and you’re all thrust together in such a quick time, and it’s amazing. Make the most of it!
2. Housemates
I have been so lucky with my housemates – in my first year I lived in student halls, meaning that I literally chose which halls I wanted to be in and that was it. The rest was down to luck! I was put in a halls with four other girls, and I was so lucky at how lovely they all were.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to live with people that you don’t click with, it must be awful!
We got along together enough to move in together into a house in our second year too, which made everything a lot easier. When uni finishes I am so going to miss having my girls a flight of stairs away when I need a cuddle or a laugh.
3. Rowing
I would never have guessed that I would voluntarily do something sport related, but hey ho! I took up rowing because of my housemates – they were all in the rowing society and I thought it was either join in or be left out.
I fell in love with rowing, I think it’s awesome!
Race days are so much fun, and, even though it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done and my body is often left throbbing after a training session, it makes it so worth it.
Plus, the photos are so flattering 😛
4. Fancy Dress Opportunities
I LOVE fancy dress, so much! And uni is the place to be if it’s fancy dress you seek 🙂 Within the first week I’d already dressed up as a school-kid, a jungle-themed animal, and a neon-theme. Joining a society helped too, the socials are often themed…
The above is me and one of my housemates at Halloween. We had a bit of a spontaneous night out on the 31st October last year, and this was the result. Luckily we always have some face paint lingering around in the house for such an occasion…
After our first race, we had a ‘Farmers Social’, where the fresher rowers go out as farm animals and the senior rowers go out as farmers. My crew decided to go as chickens, and it was so much fun. We had white tights, white tutus with yellow feathers stapled on, yellow fluffy jumpers (handy Primark), chicken masks… and we even had white, frilly underpants on under the tutus and over the tights. So cute!
This was the ‘Anything But Clothes’ social, and we got a bit excited for this one! Elle went for a plastic tablecloth, lampshade-hat, fluffy bobbled, and balloons number, while I made myself a little skirt and crop top combo. It was so much fun and so easy – my tip for this would be to cheat a little bit, and do what I did – wear a crop top and then fold a bin bag around it, making yourself a profesh-looking top. Then, for my skirt, I just puffed up and stapled some bin bags together to make a skirt, then went nuts stapling streamers, toilet roll, two unraveled shower scrunchies, and a set of battery powered fairy lights, which worked up a storm in the club!
And finally, one that I think you’ve already seen – my Summer Ball costume. Me and Elle went as Black Swan and White Swan. Last year we went to Summer Ball together and made a bit of a boob – we didn’t go to the fancy dress shop until 3pm on the day! Bearing in mind that everyone starts drinking and partying about 4pm, this really didn’t do it – and to add to things, we hadn’t really thought about what we were going to go as, so we had to panic buy and go as cavemen.
This year, however, we started much more in advance, and made these lovely costumes. We got actual ballet body suits from the dance shop, tutus (I went for a double-up and bought two – honestly, if you need a white tutu, hook me up!), real ballet tights, feather headwear, and white feathers (Everywhere!). I spent most of the night running around after my boyfriend, who said I looked hilarious, floating around in my little ballerina costume!
5. Being so Close to the Beach
Okay, so this doesn’t apply to all uni’s… but Bournemouth is so lovely. Having the beach so close is amazing. I used to spend a ton of time here with my family when I was little, but I never thought I’d be so lucky to live so close to the seaside. Sunny days are lush, warm evenings are cute, and beach sprints are great for training up those legs!
And that’s why I’m so glad I’m came to uni. I bet there are tons of other reasons, but these are my main ones. I’d love to hear why you guys are glad you came to uni, or why you’re excited about going to uni if you’re a fresher.
Good luck with freshers week!
xx
