Starting university feels like stepping into an entirely new world… one with questionable kitchen hygiene, lecture halls you will get lost in and people you met once but now somehow see everywhere. No matter who you are, there are certain canon events that every fresher seems destined to experience. You might try to avoid them, but like a badly timed fire alarm at 3 am, they’ll find you.
Here are some of the most common milestones:
The flatmate you secretly (or not-so-secretly) can’t stand
It’s all fun and games during move-in weekend, until someone “borrows” your frying pan for spag bol and leaves it soaking and growing mould for two weeks. Or someone starts blasting 2010 hits for afters at five in the morning, not considering your 9 am lecture.
Most people end the first year with at least one flatmate they’d happily ghost forever, but at least conflict management is a life skill, right?
But along the way, you’ll also find flatmates you adore
The “I’m fine” night out (you’re not fine)
The first week of uni is basically a dangerous cocktail of cheap drinks, unfamiliar surroundings, relentless peer pressure. Other that that, I promise it’s fun.
It’s almost a rite of passage to have that one night where you blow straight past your limit, wake up baffled in someone else’s hoodie, and spend the day swearing you’ll never drink again… until that very night, when all your new friends are heading out and the FOMO hits harder than the hangover.
… Sorry if this is your hoodie <3
Freshers’ flu: Your first real test
Exams and midterms are hard, but no test is bigger than that of the Freshers’ flu. You’ve heard of it, but nothing can prepare you for the way it sweeps through halls like the plague. One day you’re fine, the next, you’re living off Lemsip and regret. The good news? This is when you’ll truly bond with your flatmates, because nothing says friendship like a communal tissue box and the one unaffected friend doing your food shop.
You’ll genuinely believe this is the end for you (spoiler: it’s not, and it will happen year after year, no matter how many vitamins or precautions you take) – consider it an Edinburgh initiation.
The laundry crisis
At some point, you’ll put off doing laundry for so long you’ll be forced to wear something that’s either deeply questionable or borrowed from a friend. Then comes the joy of battling Circuit Laundry, the machines that consume your money, your time, and, most definitely, your socks.
Bonus points if you shrink something expensive, dye everything pink, forget the detergent entirely or return to find someone’s accidentally taken your favourite hoodie from the dryer.
The “oops, I forgot to go to lectures” phase
It starts innocently enough: You miss one 9 am because you were still recovering from last night. Then another, because you had to do laundry.
Suddenly, it’s week five and your main academic activity is figuring out which of your friends’ lecture notes are the least cryptic. This is also the stage where you’ll hear a lot about how “you wouldn’t survive a day” on someone else’s course.
Everyone is convinced their’s is the most gruelling degree, until exam season, when you all realise suffering is, in fact, a shared language.
Not a lecture hall in sight…
The homesick wobble
Even the most independent students have that moment: you’re alone in your room, eating cold pasta straight from the pot, and you suddenly miss your mum, your bed, and the mysterious way household chores just did themself. It often happens after the adrenaline of Freshers’ Week fades and you realise this is home now, dodgy mattress and all.
Some people call their parents. Others bury themselves in societies or nights out. Either way, it’s normal. And don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of chances to argue again about how university is basically a full time job over a dinner your parents are forced to pay for.
The questionable Freshers’ Week purchase
The freedom of student life comes with a dangerous side effect: wildly poor financial decisions. Maybe it’s a £50 “VIP” club wristband you use once, a plant you forget to water, or a bulk order of instant noodles you thought would last the semester (they won’t).
And because everything in Freshers’ Week feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you’ll justify it to yourself, “I’m making memories,” you’ll say, as you stare at the novelty cowboy hat collecting dust.
Top tip: The wristbands are a waste of your money, and the nights out are never up to par. Save your money for the Tesco trips where your favourite treat is no longer on clubcard prices.
Do not buy that wristband.
The kitchen biodiversity experiment
At some point, a forgotten takeaway box or mystery tupperware will begin a slow, horrifying transformation in the fridge. Weeks later, it’s less food and more ecosystem.
Nobody will own up to it, but everyone will take turns opening the fridge, recoiling dramatically, and declaring that something needs to be done (it won’t be).
The mysterious missing cutlery
You start the term with a full set of forks, knives, and spoons. By Christmas, you’re eating pasta with a wooden spoon because forks have somehow become the rarest commodity in halls.
Rumour has it some of them are in people’s bedrooms, others are in the bin, and one or two may have gone home with guests who swore they were “just borrowing them for a second.”
If you take anything from this article, remember that everyone’s in the same chaotic boat. You’re going to mess up, laugh, cry, and maybe lose a sock or two, and that is exactly how uni becomes one of the best times of your life. So buckle up, embrace the madness, and try not to take it all too seriously.
