I am a boring guy who is going to University in a couple of weeks. Any advice?

Stopping being so negative about yourself would probably be a good starting point.

Find a society/ies that look interesting and join them. Even if it's something you wouldn't normally do.

Step 1) Stop telling everyone you're boring
Step 2) Do some interesting stuff, it's fun.
Step 3) ????
Step 4) Profit!!

Step 1) Stop telling everyone you're boring
Step 2) Do some interesting stuff, it's fun.
Step 3) ????
Step 4) Profit!!

Just read what you've written. If all that is true, I take it then that your hobbies include watching paint dry and enjoying a nice pair of slacks?

You Seriously cannot not enjoy anything!

Stop being boring and be awesome instead.

Just read what you've written. If all that is true, I take it then that your hobbies include watching paint dry and enjoying a nice pair of slacks?

You Seriously cannot not enjoy anything!

Stop being boring and be awesome instead.

Take up skydiving.

Or get yourself a gimmick.

What the Hell's wrong with enjoying a nice pair of slacks?! There's nothing boring about it.

OP - There will be plenty of people you can talk to and find who won't drink/go clubbing and you can have a good university experience without that. Worst comes to worst just learn magic tricks until you get there, it's an amazing conversation starter.

Stop telling yourself and others that you're boring, and push yourself to try new things.

So pretty soon, I'm going to be off to university. I'm pretty excited, since it's probably the biggest change to my life so far, but I'm a bit worried about being a really boring person. A lot of my friends at previous schools and college have picked up on this; I've often been regarded as 'like an old man trapped in a teenager's body'. So far, I've been able to play this off humorously and its gone pretty well, but I doubt it'll work as well at university.

I've been getting lots of mail about Freshers Week and how it's going to be the greatest night ever, and loads of stuff about the exciting night-life and clubs, but that is literally my idea of a living hell. To begin with, I am very phonophobic; I do not like loud music, regardless of the genre, and the feeling of the music shaking through my body makes me feel sick instantly. I am also claustrophobic; just thinking about being surrounded by hundreds of other students flailing their limbs wildly to the already-feared deafening music in a dark-ish room makes me nervous! Also, with regards to being social, I don't drink alcohol. Or any drink other than water. Not sparkling either; just regular water. (People used to say that this was a pretty good metaphor for me...). It's not a moral thing; it just makes me feel sick to drink anything other than water. However, all the media that I am receiving seems to imply that university, and Freshers Week in particular, is just going to be a combination of these three things; a huge drinks-fest in a really loud and crowded club.

(Just want to make this clear early on; I'm not at all opposed to people doing this sort of thing! It's just not my cup of... water.)

There are loads of other reasons to make people think I am boring as well:

I am willing to bet a good deal of money that I am probably one of the most boring 18-year-olds in the UK, and I'm completely fine with that. However, I don't want to come across as aloof, cold or unfriendly; I don't object to anybody doing any of these things at all, and I would love to make friends and socialise... I just can't stick it in certain environments that a lot of other people my age seem to love, don't do a lot of things that other people do, and I find it hard to find conversational topics since I'm not particularly familiar with most aspects of modern life that people usually talk about. I'm also really bad with humour; for example, a lot of the stuff I've written in this post to be 'humorous' could probably come across as depressive or passive-aggressive.

Throughout my school and college days, I just studied. Other than at break-times, I did very little socialising; once every month or so, I went to the town centre with a couple of friends, had a meal, did some shopping and then went home. That was it as far as my social life went. I've never had a partner; I've had a few offers from members of both genders and turned them down because I've never felt any need to take my relationship with another person any further than friendship (I should probably add that to the list as well...). I never bothered to learn anything non-academic, since until about a year or two ago the academic world was the only world I knew really, and I've missed out on so much that I should've learned by now that, at this point, I feel like I am really inexperienced at being a 'regular human being' and there's very little I can do about it.

I've already been told to 'just be yourself', but I feel like being me is going to limit my potential to make friends and be sociable in this environment. I know that there are plenty of people at university that don't drink or go clubbing, but I always imagine that finding them is easier said than done, and the media that I'm being sent makes the chance seem very slim or non-existent! What's more, I'm probably a couple of orders of magnitude more boring than them, so what if they reject me? I don't want to be stuck completely alone hundreds of miles from home for four years, but it seems to me like a real possibility to me at the moment!

Does anyone have any advice, or are willing to share their experience if they were in any sort of similar situation? It sounds really stupid and petty reading it back, but it's something that keeps me up at night. I know already that the problem lies with myself, not anyone else, and that I should try my best to 'put myself out there and have fun', but I feel really limited in this scenario...

TL;DR: I often come across as a really boring guy and I'm worried that I will be rejected by other students at the university. Advice?

Don't forget swimming, Leyton, we go swimming and gymming from time to time. As I said to you recently and as will the whole cast of predictable TSR clones tell you, you'll find like-minded people at universities and socities that you can develop into hobbies. The unis do send you a flurry of booze/club based media, but that doesn't mean that is only activity of Freshers Week, it just means the less, low key events are not as well advertised.

Wait and see, you may have a whole halls of people like-minded. If not, i'll come down to Southampton and we can drink water together

So pretty soon, I'm going to be off to university. I'm pretty excited, since it's probably the biggest change to my life so far, but I'm a bit worried about being a really boring person. A lot of my friends at previous schools and college have picked up on this; I've often been regarded as 'like an old man trapped in a teenager's body'. So far, I've been able to play this off humorously and its gone pretty well, but I doubt it'll work as well at university.

I've been getting lots of mail about Freshers Week and how it's going to be the greatest night ever, and loads of stuff about the exciting night-life and clubs, but that is literally my idea of a living hell. To begin with, I am very phonophobic; I do not like loud music, regardless of the genre, and the feeling of the music shaking through my body makes me feel sick instantly. I am also claustrophobic; just thinking about being surrounded by hundreds of other students flailing their limbs wildly to the already-feared deafening music in a dark-ish room makes me nervous! Also, with regards to being social, I don't drink alcohol. Or any drink other than water. Not sparkling either; just regular water. (People used to say that this was a pretty good metaphor for me...). It's not a moral thing; it just makes me feel sick to drink anything other than water. However, all the media that I am receiving seems to imply that university, and Freshers Week in particular, is just going to be a combination of these three things; a huge drinks-fest in a really loud and crowded club.

(Just want to make this clear early on; I'm not at all opposed to people doing this sort of thing! It's just not my cup of... water.)

There are loads of other reasons to make people think I am boring as well:

I am willing to bet a good deal of money that I am probably one of the most boring 18-year-olds in the UK, and I'm completely fine with that. However, I don't want to come across as aloof, cold or unfriendly; I don't object to anybody doing any of these things at all, and I would love to make friends and socialise... I just can't stick it in certain environments that a lot of other people my age seem to love, don't do a lot of things that other people do, and I find it hard to find conversational topics since I'm not particularly familiar with most aspects of modern life that people usually talk about. I'm also really bad with humour; for example, a lot of the stuff I've written in this post to be 'humorous' could probably come across as depressive or passive-aggressive.

Throughout my school and college days, I just studied. Other than at break-times, I did very little socialising; once every month or so, I went to the town centre with a couple of friends, had a meal, did some shopping and then went home. That was it as far as my social life went. I've never had a partner; I've had a few offers from members of both genders and turned them down because I've never felt any need to take my relationship with another person any further than friendship (I should probably add that to the list as well...). I never bothered to learn anything non-academic, since until about a year or two ago the academic world was the only world I knew really, and I've missed out on so much that I should've learned by now that, at this point, I feel like I am really inexperienced at being a 'regular human being' and there's very little I can do about it.

I've already been told to 'just be yourself', but I feel like being me is going to limit my potential to make friends and be sociable in this environment. I know that there are plenty of people at university that don't drink or go clubbing, but I always imagine that finding them is easier said than done, and the media that I'm being sent makes the chance seem very slim or non-existent! What's more, I'm probably a couple of orders of magnitude more boring than them, so what if they reject me? I don't want to be stuck completely alone hundreds of miles from home for four years, but it seems to me like a real possibility to me at the moment!

Does anyone have any advice, or are willing to share their experience if they were in any sort of similar situation? It sounds really stupid and petty reading it back, but it's something that keeps me up at night. I know already that the problem lies with myself, not anyone else, and that I should try my best to 'put myself out there and have fun', but I feel really limited in this scenario...

TL;DR: I often come across as a really boring guy and I'm worried that I will be rejected by other students at the university. Advice?

You remind me of Will from the Inbetweeners

I'm sure you will meet people who you will feel comfortable around and you'll be able to open up. Try to join societies, go out once in a while with people and you'll have fun. I'm sure there will be people who have the same views as you so don't worry