I'm writing this with single intention of giving advice to people in my situation, and those who don't know it yet, but will find themselves in come mid September. I came to University in Sheffield, Hallam to be specific. And although I have come to love the city, my course and student life in general with its added freedom. I unfortunately ended up in the situation only known as "I have ****ing awful flatmates".
I wasn't naive, I new full well what a first year entailed. Being chucked into the mix with strangers with only the laws of chance determining if said people you're about to share your next year with are your type of people, never mind tolerable. At first I socialised in the flat, quickly determining they were not my type of people. To this day they have remained the type that go out every single night and come in at 4am in a large group only to pick up the PS3 controller and play for hours. The kind of people to use your cooking utensils without asking, never mind washing them up afterwards, take up every possible once of fridge space leaving little for you, never clean and make every kitchen surface look like an alleyway in Calcutta. Never mind the noise day and night through loud music and constant sex, which the cheap paper thin walls provided by the robbing bastards at the student accommodation company, Unite to be exact, are no barrier to anything more than a whisper. Unfortunately I don't think anybody in the history of man has had sex and only whispered........Again, I'm not naive, I know full well what the "student life" is, and although I don't mind putting ear phones in every now and then for my sake. It becomes a ****ing piss take when you do it for hours every single night.......
If your reading this as someone who is going to University this September take note, don't be fooled into the "I'll make friends with everybody on my course and it'll all be okay if the above situation happens to me". From what I've experienced, many people base their social lives, especially first years, around their flatmates......I've seen that girls tend to break the ice far easier and will see more of each other outside time tabled seminars and lectures. Guys on the other hand, if they have really good flatmates, will be great friends during uni hours, but you will see little of them outside for your first year. A sad fact I've discovered as a male.
The advice I will give anyone, specifically if your going to University this September, is do everything you can to not have the above life described. People will say the uni years fly by, but when your stuck in this situation, and all you see scattered on Facebook is that of your friends in other universities posting "omg, love life at uni" "what a night out, met some amazing people" it goes very slow!
Admittedly, my first year hasn't be too low that I regret coming. I initially joined a number of clubs being the outdoor person I am, and them along with the unusually strange number of friends from my home school who also chose Sheffield to come to University have made the bulk of my social life. I sit here now writing this, with the end of my last term of this year in sight, and the prospects of next year, living with great friends, in a far higher standard of accommodation, as a person heavily involved in the kayaking club, a sport I have always been passionate about which alone should boost my social life and the better year in the course I'm studying ahead, I guess I'm able to make the most of my bad situation and say "It'll be better next year" now I'm so close to the end..........
But for the love of God heed my advice. If you're taking your first steps into adult life, and the whirl wind that is University where ever that may be, please don't pay the extortionate fees plus expenses to sit within 4 walls going crazy from a lack of a social life. Don't be the person who wanders twice around the sports fair and doesn't sign up for anything. It is a constant source of friends, nights out and like minded people which may end up saving your University life down the line.
The worst part of this situation? You don't realise you're in it until the first month. Don't wait to find yourself there.......