When it comes to starting University, it may seem like the hardest thing that you have done in your life so far. For me, that was very true. I had never done something so challenging in my life. Leaving my family, my friends, my partner and my home; to kickstart my life and make a life for myself is the hardest thing that I have done. It gets easier though, I assure you of that. When you get to University and you meet your flatmates for the first time, it doesn’t feel like you’re on your own. Everyone else feels exactly the same as you. You are in this together.

As Fresher Week kicks in, and you are welcomed onto your course, you start to get an understanding of what University life is going to be like. With the introductory lecture and seminar, you start to make some new friends on your course and feel a sense of belonging as you find yourself within the University. Alongside the mass amounts of drinking and clubbing, getting to know your flatmates and course mates makes you feel safe, and that you are not alone.

With the course commencing, getting used to a new timetable and a campus much bigger than your previous school takes some time. You manage it eventually, with the help of lecturers and fellow coursemates. As the assignments start pouring in, the hard work begins. From essays to presentations to exams, the work is immediately full of variation and the independence that you have really starts to come into form.

As the first term continues, and submissions start coming close and Christmas is on its way, the new home that you have created for yourself really starts to take its form. You feel a sense of belonging. Living and making friends with people across the country, and the world, that you would never expect to be friends with is a great feeling. You feel stronger for the people that you have around you.

By the time that it gets to Christmas, you feel like a fully fledged University Student. A new family, a new bunch of friends, a new sense of belonging. Of course, there are times where it is hard. But you get through them, and ensure yourself that University will be the time of your life, and the beginning of a new chapter.

If your thinking of applying for next September, I assure you, it might just be the best thing you ever do!