Uncovering the freshers myths
The best week of your life? The wildest 7 days known to man? Becky Mitchell dispels the hyperbole and reveals the sensible way to approach fresher’s week whilst retaining your dignity
Freshers week has become one of the most notorious events of a student’s life. A week synonymous with drink, fun, irresponsibility and, if you’re lucky, sex. A week where time seems to stop but the alcohol never does, where one party and one snakebite simply roll into another, leaving no time or energy to think about the need for those essentials like food and sleep.
However, the infamous reputation of freshers week means it can be hyped up to such vast proportions that it can soon become an anti-climax as everything you were led to expect doesn’t happen.
Parents are no better either. Whilst some in a desperate attempt to still appear hip and young will nostalgically reminisce of that long past university week others will pile on the pressure to such an extent that it suddenly becomes one of the most terrifying ‘make or break’ seven days of your life. Forget the pressure of finals, if you don’t make this week you’ll never even get that far.
Well, so that you don’t end up hitching a lift home along the M1 in seven days time after everything you were led to expect of this notorious week doesn’t meet up to your expectations, we’ve put together a few home truths to put your mind at rest.
1. Meeting people and finding the ‘best mate’
Whilst meeting people may seem fairly easy, actually finding the people that will become your best mates is much harder. Regardless of what people tell you, it is really quite unlikely that you will actually meet your best friends for life during freshers week.
If you haven’t bonded spiritually, mentally and emotionally by the end of the first night (sealing it with the essential blood brothers act of friendship) this does not mean you are socially retarded.
If you haven’t bonded spiritually, mentally and emotionally by the end of the first night (sealing it with the essential blood brothers act of friendship) this does not mean you are socially retarded. The majority of students are not actually best friends with everyone that lives on their corridor and if after the first week they don’t seem your cup of tea, this is perfectly fine. It doesn’t mean that you’ll never make friends during university and it doesn’t form adequate cause to telephone the oldies and get them to collect you pronto for a second gap year.
Some believe the root to becoming a truly popular and legendary force is to essentially become someone else. Whilst transforming your identity into a prince of a small island whose name you can’t pronounce may get you a few gold digger mates in the first hour, this type of tactic will not lead to lasting friendships. Just remember, you will make friends and people will like you even if your favourite film’s are westerns starring Clint Eastwood.
2. Conversations
Unfortunately it is extremely unlikely that you will experience the most memorable, thought provoking conversations of your life during freshers week. In fact if there is a single conversation you can remember the next morning through the banging hangover which has descended over your mind like a grey cloud, you are an extremely lucky and perhaps rare individual.
In fact there is something strangely pleasurable and almost indecent about watching a room full of inebraited individuals shake their thing to ‘Crazy In Love’ when you’re stone cold sober.
Fresher’s week conversations always seem to be an incessant round of the same interminable questions. Yes it will get dull to tell the twentieth person where you’re from, your name, A-level results, pets, last holiday, even your bank balance, but just think of it as part of the vital process of laying the seeds of friendship.
It is unlikely you will even remember the names of half the people you speak to but fear not, this is all part of the experience of being a fresher.
For most, freshers week involves drinking. A lot. And yes for many this won’t be a problem or even a chore, but for those who don’t feel the need to drink six pints in six minutes (yes, I’ve seen it done) this does not signal the end of the road.
Freshers week is not in fact purely about drinking. It does not have to be a week long challenge to consume as much alcohol as is humanly possible. Or rather not possible judging by the sounds of retching that resonate along the corridors throughout the early hours.
Alcohol does inevitably seem to play a significant part in the whole process but that does not mean that it necessarily has to be an essential part. Freshers week can be done sober (yes I’ve seen it done too) and it may even mean you can remember half the names of the people you met the previous night. In fact there is something strangely pleasurable and almost indecent about watching a room full of inebraited individuals shake their thing to ‘Crazy In Love’ when you’re stone cold sober. It can even be quite frightening.
Yet if you’d rather not stand out as the sober, ‘no drinks for me’ type, it is possible to do it on the sly without anyone noticing. If you’re holding a glass of coke people just assume that it contains some deadly mix of vodka and white rum and, unless you feel the need to, there’s no need to inform them otherwise.
Oh and just for the record, a snakebite is a disgusting beverage consisting of lager, cider and blackcurrant all mixed together (just to save you from asking if this hardy concoction wasn’t the local beverage of choice back home). It’s cheap too, which is why you’ll see so many people drinking it on freshers week and will also explain why so many T-shirts will be transformed by the end of the first night from their mum’s ultra Daz whites, into an odd, unattractive shade of purple.
4. Going Out
Whilst there will be events planned for each of the seven nights it doesn’t actually mean that it is essential to go to each and every party on offer. Missing one event because you haven’t eaten or washed, are so shattered because you haven’t had more than five hours sleep for four nights and just fancy a quiet night in with a DVD, will not automatically mean that the next day no-one will remember your name, who you are or why you’re on their corridor.
There will be a lot of people who go to every single event every night, but then equally there will be a fair few who just go out on a couple of nights. Both of these are equally fine.
Freshers week hosts events to give new students the opportunity to get out of their rooms and meet people. It is designed to supply such a seemingly endless stream events that the week becomes a hedonistic social whirl, bombarding you with so many things to do that you will be too exhausted and hung-over to even think about feeling homesick let alone actually feel it.
So if you’re just too tired to go out then don’t, it’s totally fine. The chances are if by the Thursday you suggest watching a DVD with a few friends rather than going out, there’ll be quite a few relieved and agreeable individuals to accompany you.
Freshers Week : The reality
It is a week stacked with more events than you ever thought possible. The fun stuff is clearly the significant and most memorable part of the week, but there are still some essential, albeit rather dull, tasks that must be done during those seven days.
Unfortunately what people don’t tell you about freshers week is the queuing. Whilst the nights offer fun, fun and well more fun, much of the day will be spent queuing for the essentials like the vital NUS card.
This card will become like a close friend, a constant companion in your hour of need, guaranteeing student price entry to the clubs and the sought after and highly necessary discounts at places like HMV and Topshop. Keep it with you at all times. Forget ID cards Mr Blunkett it’s the NUS cards we’re after.
Yet there is still one essential part of freshers week that doesn’t need to be uncovered because unlike these other myths it is actually true: University will be the most fun, steepest learning curve of your life, where you will meet a more diverse, original and wide range of people from all sorts of backgrounds than you ever could at school, and best of all find that you actually become really good friends with people you never even thought existed before.
And for all you gap year returnees, at least reading this article has proven to you that you can still read despite not reading anything but the in flight safety magazine for the past eight months.
So there you go, these dangerous myths have been uncovered. Now go out and have some fun.
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