University Life: The First Year

In the beginning…

I’m going to start my story before university, back when I was filling out UCAS forms. I was stuck. I wanted to act, but I also wanted a job after I got my degree. I wanted to apply to drama and psychology courses, so that’s what I did. Writing my personal statement was an interesting experience. It was as if I had dissasociative identity disorder, as I was trying to gage my statement so that it was clear I wanted to do psychology, but also clear that I wanted to do drama. Eventually I was offered places at York for writing, directing and performing, York for psychology, and Sheffield for Psychology. I accepted my place at Sheffield after much deliberation, deciding that it would be better to do Pscyhology, as to be a Clinical Psychologist, I need a degree, whereas I don’t to act.

The first day of Uni…

I arrived at Stephenson Hall on Oakholme Road. My brother and my mum started to unpack whilst I went on a hunt to find my room. I walked past it twice before realising that it was my room, and not just a store cupboard. It was next to another girl’s room – we had a mini corridor to ourselves. Through two sets of doors was a big corridor full of activity as new students unpacked and met each other. I heard the girl next door whining about forgetting test tubes (for shots) and I thought to myself ‘Oh God, I am not going to like this girl’ — I now live with her! How wrong I was.

The first semester…

I quickly formed a friendship group based on location, mostly. It included Becky (the girl with the test tubes), Nancy (a pint-sized giggler), Helen (a private-schooled party animal), Jon (a shy opinionated guy), Joe (a circus enthusiast) and Richard (a mumbling scouser). We all thought Nancy and Joe would hook up, because they kept hanging out and drinking tea. Nancy was appaled at the idea. We akwardly got to know one another, and often hung out in the evenings at the weekend. We quickly started talking about living together. There was a big drama because the girls were originally going to live together, but then the boys said they wanted to live with us. I really didn’t want to do this, but I was overruled. Christmas came, and another drama happened. I discovered that the girls I thought were my friends had gone to London without me for a trip. I felt so betrayed and friendless. That first semster was one of the hardest few months I’ve had in my short 20 years. I was not looking forward to going back.