The beginning of the rest of my life

My new home <3

Last week saw me beginning a new chapter in my life as I moved away from home to start a new life acquiring higher education at university. Many people who know me well would remember that last year I made a decision NOT to go to university but pursue a career in Accounting through apprenticeships. My parents, as ever supportive as they are, were backing me up and supporting my decision. However, at just 18 at that time, I knew I didn't really know what I wanted to do for the rest (or for most) of my life to come. I decided to take a gap year. Again, my parents supported me and encouraged me to work hard and make plans that will actually benefit me in the future rather than waste the year away. The year wasn't wasted at all, in fact, taking a gap year was perhaps one of the best decisions I've ever made. During that gap year, I moved out and lived on my own for three months, working and saving up for my volunteering trip to Tanzania and also buying myself things. I became independent, which was the first step towards growing up into a responsible adult. A few months in, I decided to apply for university, having decided that the university experience would help me to be even more independent and responsible as I'd be managing my time for studying, social life and work. I'd also learn to budget my money and plan ahead for my goals. I told myself that if things didn't work out well for me at uni, I could always drop out and carry on with the apprenticeship idea. So I applied and here I am now.

All the way from HP20 to CO4, roughly 96 miles away from home, I moved in to what will be my home for the next 3-4 years. I must admit, I was quite nervous as I'd only briefly exchanged "hello"s with my flatmates on Facebook prior to moving in, but what kept me steady was knowing that everyone else was probably as nervous as I was! My flatmates seemed nice at first glance, and we've had great fun together since the first night, We're all different in our own ways, but we get on really well together. My friends from home were there as well as new friends I made via freshers page, which made my first week at uni less daunting. Freshers' events were like something out of The Great Gatsby, however. My flatmates and I went to The Squares to join in on the freshers' fun going on that night. As we drew closer, I could hear what sounded like a water fountain/massive waterfall and got really excited. I imagined something like the Waterfall in Dubai opposite the Dubai Mall which dances along to music. However, I couldn't have been more wrong! "The Squares" - where all the shops, banks, restaurants, club and bars as well as classrooms are, were filled with hundreds of students wanting to "turn up" and have a great time. The noise that sounded like a waterfall or a buzz was the noise from the conversations going on among so many people. They all looked like tiny ants from afar, with barely any room to move around to get to the Sub Zero club where the main event was to take place. There was broken glass everywhere, empty beer cans and fizzy drink bottles all over the floor and about eighty percent of the people around us were either tipsy or very drunk. We were (or at least I was) really shocked! Of course I knew many people would be getting smashed at freshers,  but this wasn't what I expected at all. It was quite comical, though. There wasn't any violence (at least n one that I witnessed) and people seemed to be having a merry drunken time! However, my flatmates and I weren't really feeling the scene as we were quite tired from all the unpacking we'd been doing - unpacking which I'd only half finished as I went a little OTT with my shopping, oops (shoppaholic alert!)

It took me about 2-3 days to finally get my room in order, and even then, there's still too much stuff everywhere. I just thought, oh well, that'll have to do, I registered with the doctor, registered with the university, collected my free textbooks courtesy of the uni and tried to prepare for the second week when seminars commenced. Throughout the week I tried to be as friendly as possible, spoke to people, swapped numbers and snapchat IDs and went to as many events as possible. Then alas, freshers' flu caught up with me! It was bound to happen, one day or another, I suppose, But I'd hoped I'd get lucky or at least fight it off within a day or two. It's now 5 days later and I'm still struggling, feeling meh :/
Over the weekend there was the freshers' fair where societies and clubs were recruiting people to sign up. I was meant to be there recruiting people for the volunteer opportunity with the FutureSense Foundation under their Challenges Abroad programme (the same company I volunteered with earlier this year in Tanzania under their Gap Guru programme) as I decided to become a challenge leader at the University of Essex next summer. However, for some reason I'm yet to know about, our stall got cancelled, which means we missed out on a chance of attracting potentially hundreds of sing ups for the trip. However, I've been utilising social media and word of mouth to spread the word, inviting my flatmates by telling them of my own adventures, and I even bumped into one interested individual who told me about this amazing volunteer opportunity in Tanzania, not knowing I'm the one leading it! I was glad that people are inviting other people, which is good.

Yesterday, seminars commenced and they were pretty boring to be honest, but I stayed alert and took some random notes because I know that all the information is relevant. I'm actually more organised now, using separate books for separate modules and I'm proud of how mature I've become in just one week! (well, kind of). I haven't really been homesick except for once, and I've spoken to my parents twice now. This is the beginning of the rest of my life, as this chapter unfolds to open new doors for me and my future! I'm going to work hard and play hard to make my parents proud! I'm now looking forward to the next few weeks when things get deeper and more intense!