The 7 Best, Craziest & Worst Things About Your First Week At Uni
If you’re ready to love what you do, find out more about our life-changing courses at torrens.edu.au
O-Week has come and gone. The summer weather has turned from fun to punish. Your group chat is lively with “what ifs” and “omg how abouts”.
You’ve laid out an outfit that looks cool but not try-hard cool. You’ve bought an unreasonable amount of stationery. You’ve screamed at all your family members while trying to figure out exactly how to enrol in classes.
You feel very old and way too young. You’re first-week-of-uni ready, hun. This is what you’re in for.
Free Food!
The most glorious part of the university experience is how desperate big corporate brands are to win your loyalty. To do so, they’ll get in early with things called ‘activations’, where they basically throw free everything at you in exchange for your business.
You can expect stalls, discount codes, branded KeepCups, and oodles of tote bags, but what you really want to look out for is the free food. That’s the jackpot. Soon, you’ll realise you’re more than willing to sign your life away just for a free sausage sizzle. You won’t even be mad about it.
Good Friends, Bad Friends, And The In-Between
Your first week of uni will likely be filled with 90 per cent tester friends and 10 per cent good eggs. Sadly, it’ll take a while to figure out which ones are worth your time and which aren’t, so the majority of people you meet in the first week will probably end up in the “unfriend” pile.
Warning signs include: the overly eager, the underly eager, and the guy who “plays Devil’s advocate”. Acknowledge it, embrace it, and don’t spend too much time mourning the friendship when you go from “after-tute coffee” to “nod in the hallway”. Use all your energy cherishing the good ones instead.
Classes Are… Awesome?
In high school, your timetable was a mixture of classes you hated, classes you thought were bearable and, if you’re lucky, one you were kind of interested in.
At uni, you’ll quickly realise that you won’t need to desperately watch the clock for the bell. In your first class, you’ll have the enlightening realisation that you chose to be here, studying a subject you enjoy, and no-one is? Forcing? You? To stay??
There’s bound to be a few courses that are a bit of a drag (Torts, Statistics, et al), but on the whole, time will pass a lot more quickly than you expect. As corny as it may sound, you’ll start to fall in love with learning.
Empty Notebooks And Brand New Pens
There’s nothing more satisfying than the possibility that comes with a fresh notebook. What genius ideas will you jot down?! What highlighters will you colour-coordinate with other highlighters?! Post-its! Folders! Labels!
Blank notebooks are a physical representation of all your potential. Absolutely no judgement here if you don’t like how you wrote something in one of your classes and you rip out the page and start again. No judgement at all.
No-one Cares That You Turned Up
The most humbling thing about university is that nobody really cares if you go or not. There’s no teacher marking a roll, no mates to commiserate with (yet), no comforting pre-planned schedule. It’s just you and the aforementioned blank notebooks showing up to the party.
To be honest, this is hands down the worst part: realising you’re not a baby anymore and that all of your successes, failures, missteps, and sacrifices are your own. It’s enough to give you full-body chills.
But You Do Have People Rooting For You
While no one’s going to hold your hand through uni, there are a range of services to help you out when you need it. But, much like your education, it’s up to you to seek them out.
If you become overwhelmed in your first week, suss out the on-campus counsellors, check out some study groups, and set yourself up with a support system. If you’re lucky, your campus might even give you access to magical people called “success coaches” – they’re kind of like PTs for uni and we highly recommend you snag one for yourself, pronto.
What we’re saying is, there are ways to familiarise yourself with the very different, and very hectic, exams and assignments so you’re not blindsided in Week Four.
It’s Not Make Or Break
Unlike the movies or your high school’s Deputy Principal would have you believe, the first week of uni is not the be all and end all. If you turn up late, spill coffee all over your stuff (NOT THE NOTEBOOKS!), turn up at the wrong campus or call the tutor ‘Dad’, it’s OK.
You have at least three more years, 60 more weeks, and however-many-more days to start all over again. Yes, even if – in hindsight – your outfit sucked.
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If you’re ready to love what you do, find out more about our life-changing courses at torrens.edu.au.
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(Lead image: Buro Millennial / Pexels)