By Lea
Starting university, moving away from home and meeting so many new people in a new environment… it can all be very overwhelming and sometimes just a bit too much for us.
Moving all the way from Dubai, with no close family in the UK and moving to the depths of the South West (Exeter) was all a lot of change for one person. If you know me, I am quite lucky in regards to being a social person and can, most of the time, easily adapt to my surroundings. But even so, all these changes were still challenging.
The most important thing to know is that everyone is in a similar position and it is 100% normal to feel awkward, anxious or alone. Looking back to my first year of university, I now realise the things I did ‘right’, as well as the bad habits I, like many freshers, picked up. So, for anyone about start university, or anyone at university in general, below are a few things that I did, which helped me get stuck into university and helped to reduce the nerves I had when starting!
1. Join a society.
When I was about to start at Exeter University, the one thing I knew I really wanted to do was to join a society. I was quite lucky, as I had a few friends who also moved to Exeter with me from Dubai which made for an easier transition as I had a little piece of home with me at all times (or whenever I needed it).
During Freshers Week, Sas (one of my Dubai friends) and I went to various society “trial sessions”, and decided to join Mixed Lacrosse for a way to stay active and be social at the same time. Joining Lacrosse was one of my favourite parts of my first year as it allowed me to meet a whole host of people from various years and courses.
If you don’t know anyone from your hometown at university, go with one of your new flatmates, or just go by yourself. Joining a society allows you to be social instantly, meet new people and adds to your confidence within a new and slightly scary environment, so I would highly recommend this!
2. Meet people in your accommodation block!
You might not get along with these specific people at first or have anything in common with them at all but meeting new people that you are going to be living around and seeing every day is always a good idea. They may surprise you and introduce you to activities / interests you didn’t know you liked, and most likely introduce you to more people who you may get along with too.
3. Do what you like and not what you think makes you ‘cool’
There is such a variety of people with millions of interests at university. Doing things you actually like, instead of something you think will make you ‘cool’, will lead you to meet people more like you, with similar opinions and who you connect with instead of meeting people you have nothing in common with at all. For example, joining a society which you are passionate about, as people in that society will share that passion and possibly others.
4. Be organised!
As much as university is amazing for socialising, it is also important to remember that you are there to learn (as nerdy as that sounds). A lot of people find the deadlines and the number of lectures / modules quite difficult to keep up with. If you are organised, for example, keeping a calendar for your deadlines or maybe a folder for each of your modules, university, and your course don’t have to be stressful at all.
5. Making friends / being social within your course!
A lot of people get so stuck on making friends in their accommodation, that they forget that they will have to spend a lot of time on campus with people from their course. It is important and also sometimes easier to make friends with people on your course because you already have something in common with them.
Luckily for Business and Management students (and other courses too), we have a lot of group work etc, which makes it very easy to meet people from your course, get to know them and be more social.
Another tip: Join your course society (e.g. Business and Finance Society for Exeter goers) and meet like-minded people. It's good for you and your CV ;)
Obviously, I’m not an expert at university but I can definitely say that I enjoyed both 1st and 2nd year by getting as involved as possible, but also making sure I spent enough time on uni work!
Of course, it is difficult to get over the nerves at the beginning but joining a society, being more social within your accommodation and just being you are good ways to get stuck into the student life and make the transition a little easier for yourself.
And don’t forget to have your daily tea break! ☕
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