...and now in a break from the me-related posts… ;-)
Manchester’s home to about 100,000 students, and this week it’s Freshers’ (induction) Week for the University of Manchester amongst others. And, boy, can you tell?! There are hundreds of them, up and down Oxford Road, looking young, wearing their Monday best, going to the poster sales, trying to work out how to buy a buss pass, and generally creating lots of litter… Welcome – we’re glad to see you all!
Freshers’ Week - it’s meant to be the “best week of your life”. Frankly, it’s rarely that, and more often a week of loneliness, depression and angst. If I’m honest I was pretty scared for most of mine – trying too hard to impress, feeling lost in more ways than one, and working out where that £200 had gone…
A few of the internal questions I (and others I’ve talked to about this) remember asking: What should I wear? Who are they? Is she my friend? Where’s that building? How do I do that? Aren’t I meant to be somewhere right now? Where’s that piece of paper? Is this all it’s cracked up to be? Should I have another drink? Have I drunk too much? Why is everyone having a better time? Does he like me? Am I ever going to fit in?
And it’s not just on my mind because it’s taking me twice as long to walk down the road as normal… but also because our service next week is based around ‘hope’ – something I think I (and other students) clung to during the first week.
I hope it gets better. I hope it gets easier. I hope this isn’t it…
1 comment:
I'm finding this September a little different because it's the first time in 23 years that it's not been the start of something academic-related - either a new year for studying, a new year for working with students or a new year for wishing I was a student. And honestly, even though I loved being a student, I think I'm the happiest I've been for a long time. Shouldn't get too used to it though because, as long as I keep liking my job, I'll probably go back to uni to get professional qualifications starting next September...
Post a Comment