The time has come.
The day when many of you finally leave home and move into halls. The few months you spend in halls will undoubtedly be some of the strangest, memorable and unique times of your life so far. Nothing can compare – in both a good and a bad sense. Here are just some of the things you will learn over the next few months…
No matter how clean and tidy you tell your parents you’re going to keep your tiny room, it will always end up an absolute state. You will always clean it before your parents visit, but if they are anything like mine it will never be tidy enough.
The takeaway discount codes will become your best friends but don’t rely on them too much, there will always be at least one flatmate who blows half of their student loan on takeaways in the first month – don’t be that person.
No matter how difficult you find cooking, there will always be meals easy enough for anyone to cook. Once you’ve found these, other recipes will come much easier. Plus all those fancy meals you always wanted to cook and claimed you’d be brilliant at? Just try using the cooker in halls and then get back to me.
Those utensils your mum bought you that she insisted you would need? Not only will they never find a use, often they won’t even be unpacked.
There will always be someone who decides dating a flatmate is a fantastic idea until suddenly they’ve broken up or had a fight and everyone suddenly feels a chill in the air whenever they meet in the kitchen making their pot noodles.
Think halls will be party central? Just wait until you have your first party shut down by security at 10, then you’ll learn the truth.
There is always (at least) one person who brings out an inner rage in everyone as soon as they step foot in the communal area. Just release the stress by bonding with your flatmates over how much they annoy you…
One cannot simply offer to cook for one flatmate. As soon as you offer one person some free food, prepare for a line of eager students waiting for the same treatment. My top tip: find a cheap, easy recipe that will feed a ton of people at once but at barely any cost to you, that way people owe you a meal but you’ve barely paid anything – soup is ideal!
And finally, hold onto the great friends you make in halls, if you survived that together, you can survive anything.
We need volunteers! Want to help out during Freshers? Come and join the fun, get in touch with us via either: editor@gcustudents.co.uk or deputy.editor@gcustudents.co.uk
