L I F E S T Y L E | PA G E 1 7
How to have a better next year LYDIA BROADLEY
1st year English Literature
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here has always been an expectation that university is the best time of everyone’s lives. Before becoming a student, it is easy to focus purely on the good things you hear about uni – the social life, the new friends and the freedom to do whatever you like. However, for many people the reality isn’t quite this positive. If this year hasn’t gone quite the way you wanted it to, there are things you can do to make next year a better experience. If you have struggled to make friends this past year, you can find people with simiar
interests to you by joining societies. There is a huge variety of societies to join at Reading, ranging in activities from canoeing to quidditch, so there is bound to be something for anyone to get involved in. If drinking and nights out aren’t your thing, it is easy to feel alone with the massive drinking culture at university. However, the non-drinking society at Reading offers other ways of meeting like-minded people and making friends, regularly hosting fun events such as movie nights. Also, now the weather is getting better there is far more to do such as going on walks and hav-
ing picnics outdoors. Many people find their grades drop from what they’re used to at A-levels in their first year at university due to the different things that tutors look for whilst marking. If you are struggling, the university offers study advice in the URS building offering advice on issues such as; understanding feedback, getting a clear idea of what tutors expect from you, managing stress and ultimately achieving better grades. One of the biggest stresses university students face is finances. With the expenses of buying new books, nights out
and necessities such as food shops, it is no surprise that the majority of students end the year in their overdraft. Getting a summer job can repair the majority of damage done over the year, and it is always helpful to try and save some of that money for next years’ rent. Also, make sure you keep an eye out for campus jobs being advertised to enable you to have an income in addition to your student loan during term time. The university offers a counselling and wellbeing service, and you can also talk to your personal tutor about any problems you are having. Scheduling
regular FaceTime calls to catch up with your friends and family can be really helpful if you’re feeling homesick. You can catch up on everything that’s been going on at home, so you don’t need to feel as though you’re missing out on anything. Finally, it is important to focus on the bigger picture and realise that university doesn’t have to constantly be the best time of your life. Although it is an experience like no other, life has plenty more to offer than just these three years – so it is important to focus on the future and what is waiting for you after graduation.
freshers but weren’t really all that ‘fresh’. The smell of yesterday’s clothes was palpable and the cough of fresher’s flu floated around the room and a million different stories about what everybody did last night hung in the air. It was hard to compete with the group who hadn’t even been home as they asked, “So where did you go last night?”. The answer was of course that I’d been at home last night, or maybe at work but it was that answer which became one of the best things about my first year. For the first few weeks, lots of people were clinging desperately to the half-remembered memories of
fresher’s week to get them through and I, of course was adding to my list of interesting commuter anecdotes. At first it felt like I didn’t fit in because I’d brushed my teeth or went to bed at 10 o’clock last night and I was worried about making friends. Looking back, however, this was all rather silly and in time I’ve made some good friends at uni, and admittedly, haven’t envied them at all as they go back to their halls. I still get asked now “which halls are you in?” and the answer is still that “I live at home” but now its more of a badge of honour, I feel like some sort of adventurer who comes from outside of campus, like
a welcome visitor who has a stable part-time job and all that other sexy stability which many of those in halls are craving. The commuter cold shoulder I sometimes received soon turned to jealousy and I loved having the right balance between home and uni and soon realised that I wasn’t missing out on anything at all. All the mysticism surrounding halls soon dissipated and my routine became another of the best parts of commuting. As the weeks rolled on, it was sometimes stressful when trains were cancelled, and my essay needed to be handed in before 12 or I was unsure whether or not
to commute during strikes, but I soon settled into getting my morning coffee and catching the train and starting work by 10. I found that having to commute allowed me to spend more time studying, as between lectures I couldn’t pop home for a nap, but would instead begin the challenge of finding study space in URS and would feel quite accomplished when I had been successful. On reflection, I couldn’t imagine my first year being any different than getting to enjoy all the best things about living at home with my lovely family and being at uni with my lovely friends and I really wouldn’t have changed it…
The first year of a commuter student RACHEL JOEL
1st year English and Politics
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s I embarked on my first year, I had all the usual worries; what if nobody likes me? What if they find out that I’m actually quite boring and normal? What if one day I’m called into my tutor’s office and told that they have made a terrible mistake and I must leave immediately? I thought a lot about these things on my first train journey, and then on my first trip on the 21 bus but when I arrived none of that really mattered after all and I was instead met with a group of people who were