Freshers: take two?

What does it mean to be a fresher? Coming from a second year student who never quite had ‘freshers’.

Photography: Jasmine Austin

What is freshers? Your parents might tell you it’s a time of joining every society possible, your professors might tell you it’s a time of integration into your department, and the countless freshers ads will tell you it’s a whole week of partying (and daily hangovers).

Freshers is a rite of passage that has existed since the inception of university (although with arguably less beer pong back then). Since then, freshers has evolved into the quintessential event marking the commencement of university. Time and time again, we’re told that freshers is this invaluable time that you have to take advantage of, to get involved in everything and meet absolutely everyone. God forbid the FOMO.

Coming from a second year student who never quite experienced any of the above, my freshers experience was somewhat different from the average one, or at least what we’re told freshers should be. There we all were, arriving in our allocated halls with full IKEA bags and big expectations. Of course, the pandemic said no.

Photography: Isabella Schmid

Instead of heading out to freshers blowouts, we sat in our kitchens with capacity limits, and instead of blowing through our student budgets on expensive London drinks, we washed down Lidl vodka with a disproportionate amount of lemonade. This was a far cry from the tale of what freshers should be, yet the fundamentals of ‘freshers’ still persisted in the midst of lockdowns and social distancing: the awkward first meetings, the late night blasting of music, the classic drinking games, the bonding of people over niche interests…

The truth is that freshers is never quite the narrative you’re sold. It isn’t going out every single night because, regardless of the adrenaline, no one can handle a week straight. Neither can your liver.

Photography: Scarlett Beeston

The true meaning of freshers, as I discovered in my unconventional experience of such, is figuring out the next chapter of your book. It’s about the first moments of independence, both exciting and absolutely, utterly terrifying. It’s about the occasional homesickness and the loneliness as you settle into a foreign environment. It’s about meeting people and more people, eventually finding your ‘group’. It’s about stressing over the summer reading that no one ever does and getting lost on the way to a lecture, even if it might be over Zoom.

So to all the incoming freshers, enjoy your nights out and your newfound freedom in the easing of restrictions. And to those like me who didn’t quite have the conventional freshers, enjoy the second take.

Welcome to university.