Regret about Uni Choice after First Year

Hi there
I've just finished my first year doing Biology at Uni of Manchester. I've loved my first year - made lots of friends, love the city, love my course, even went to Mallorca for a field course!
But I can't help feeling some regret over my choice. I'm from Warrington, which is a ~45 min drive away, so I'd been to Manchester quite a lot before I came here for uni, and a lot of my home friends also came to uni here. I made sure to really try and make new friends (which I have) and not go home often (I only went at Christmas like everyone else). But I just feel like I've missed out on the whole experience of going to a completely new city with no one I knew, and feel like I should've gone to Bristol all on my own, which I was considering when making my choices.
This all could just be me feeling sad about first year being over, and my regret if I went to Bristol could have been just as bad if not worse after seeing all my friends having a good time in Manchester, but I just don't know. I feel like I've wasted a big opportunity.
What do you all think?

So when you graduate, get a job and move to a whole different city (anywhere in the world?). You have missed absolutely nothing. Be thankful for what you have now and enjoy each moment on its own. Yearning for something you don't have whilst dismissing what you have is a sure route to mental destruction.

Good luck!

wow thank you haha i think i am being stupid tbh

no one thinks you’re being stupid ( no one who has any sense, that is!)
@hotpud has nailed it
you made a great 🌟 choice,
and can move to Bristol if you like afterwards for a postgrad or a graduate job

Agree with the above. You are doing really well so enjoy the experience.

Don't think too much about this because you might eventually overthink this and end up stressing out about it which is not worth at all. There'll always be some creeping thoughts of regret about choices, especially ones that seem extremely important. But at then end of the day, you made the choices and you have to own up and stick to them. There must have been reasons why you came to Manchester. Think about those, think about the good things that you've gotten out of UoM because you can't go back and change anything. Just go with the flow. I also recently had thoughts of regret regarding my uni choice (for different reasons). I am also a first year student at UoM like you, studying MechEng. I was given the opportunity to choose between studying in Toronto or Manchester which of course I ended up with the latter. Overtime I felt like I made a terrible mistake considering how I was given the chance to study in a different continent, at a highly reputable school as a plus. I didn't have the greatest start to uni, being hit with COVID during Freshers Week and all, but I just keep reminding myself that I had my initial reasons to picking UoM and I should own up to them. And like you said, perhaps going to Toronto or Bristol in your case would be worse off. We will never know, all we can do is make the best of our time and the path we chose. Besides, UoM is a great uni to go to, with amazing social life, high academic reputation etc. It's a great place to be.