On the 16th of September 2016 I moved to Uni. 

At the time I was terrified. I spent almost everyday leading up to doomsday cry-packing my clothes into storage boxes and aggressively cuddling my dog.

I'll give you some background. I live in a relatively small town in the Peak District, about 20 minutes from Sheffield. The most exciting thing to do in my town is go to 'Big Tesco' or venture to the one nightclub that's only bearable on student Thursdays. Pretty bleak. 

Moving from that to the second biggest city in the UK was a big fucking step.

I go to the University of Manchester and  currently live in halls. I purposely chose the fuck off expensive halls with a double bed and heated towel rail. Not because I'm a snob or because I have the money to throw about but because I wanted the sanctuary and safety of a nice flat. If it all went tits up, I didn't make any friends and hated everything, at least I'd be able to come back to a room that didn't look like a prison cell. That's probably tip number 1: invest in nice halls. It's not all that much more expensive than the rest, I get to poo in private and don't feel like I'm being suffocated in my sleep when boyfriend comes to visit. It's also the place where you spend most of your time, binge watching PLL and trying to finish coursework 20 minutes before the deadline. It's worth eating ALDI basic beans and pasta for a couple of weeks. Also, heated towel rails!!

Tip 2: Say yes, to (almost) everything.

Before coming to Uni I hadn't bought any wristbands or tickets to events. Despite the constant facebook notifications that there's only 100 tickets left that YOU MUST BUY RIGHT NOW!!!!! there were always tickets left. I thought I'd wait and see what my flat mates were doing, or whoever else I happened to make kind of friends within the first week. Prior to coming to Uni a few girls in my course had started a group chat on facebook, this lead me to find two girls who lived in my halls. I'd messaged them a few times, and when I knew they had arrived and unpacked I invited them both to my flat for some drinks. (BTW I know it's not necessarily essential to drink in freshers, but a couple of vodka lemonades does make the conversation flow less awkwardly.) From this we all bought the same tickets to some freshers events and through those events and pre-drinks at different flats throughout the week I got to know a lot more people than just my flat mates. Some of the events were shit, Craig Charles DJing (that guy from robot wars) wasn't a highlight, but going to literally everything made sure I didn't miss an opportunity 1: to get to know the girls in my halls more and 2: to meet people outside of the small circle we'd developed. So say yes to everything (within reason, pugs not drugs!!!!!)

Tip 3: Don't play hard to get

Be annoying. Start group chats on everything with everyone. Have a course chat, have a flat chat, have a lad chat. This means that there are multiple opportunities to be invited to an event, or to invite people to an event. Don't be embarrassed to ask people what they're doing or if they want to go out somewhere. Freshers week sounds like 168 hours of alcohol fuelled fun times, but what doesn't get mentioned in the facebook event pages are the hours in the daytime you spend lonely and hungover. I found this the hardest part to deal with, ringing my mum crying fully clothed in bed because I needed paracetamol and I couldn't figure out how the hob worked to make the packet pasta she'd left me. Messaging the people you went out with the night before asking if they want to go for a spoons breakfast will never go unappreciated. 

Tip 4: Don't judge someone by their public school cover

When I met my flatmates, I wasn't 100% convinced they were my kind of people. out of the 4, 3 are international, from Malaysia, Australia and France???? The other is the poshest person I've ever met. He went to Harrow, which is miles away from the community school I was at for 7 years. As it turns out, they aren't really my people and we have very little in common. However, they are all lovely and they're clean. Which is a rarity in halls. Although I was a bit down that they weren't really ones for shotting vodka I now appreciate a quiet, calm and CLEAN flat to come back to after 9-5 lectures. Instead of going out we have flat meals or order Dominos. It's an alternative uni experience but when deadlines are looming its a perk. 

Tip 5: Enjoy being away from home

Now, I'm not saying I don't get homesick. Because I do, when I don't know how to cook rice or how to clean hair dye off the bathroom wall I give home a ring and get sad that my mums got a better social life than me. But the freedom of living alone is great. Not having to text saying you're going out and another text to say you're in the taxi home so your mum can 'go to sleep without worrying'. Having dirty pots in your room for weeks without anyone nagging to wash them. Not showering, because you don't have anywhere to be and you stopped caring about how greasy your hair was in week 3. Cooking oven chips at 3am because you're hungry and you can. It's not fully moving out, but its a good test drive to see if it's something you can handle. 

Lastly, enjoy being a fresher. When semester 2 hits the fun and games are over and you have to actually get a degree. I've almost finished first year and our house is all sorted for September. Although it sounds disgustingly cliche, time goes so quickly, so make the best of your experience before it ends and uni starts shoving CV's and job interviews down your neck.