Preparing for university life

On the day I received my results from college and found out I was going to study Multimedia Journalism from the University of Brighton, I was excited. I knew I had so much to prepare for but because I was still abuzz from results day, my mind was running at a mile a minute. I was busy thinking of all the different things I needed to do before moving into my university accommodation for the year and ultimately starting university.

One of the very first things I did was start taking cooking seriously and learning quick and easy meals I could make on my own. Once I had perfected my easy meals, I asked my mum if she could teach me the more complicated dishes from my country.

I was very lucky to get in contact with some of my potential course mates before term began and we were able to exchange ideas on what our syllabus had to offer. We asked each other questions about what we studied at sixth form or college, our childhoods and what we hoped to gain from this course, which helped with first-day nerves as we already knew a little about each other.

I had been a regular volunteer at my home borough of Newham, East London, and wanted to continue volunteering at university when I had free time. I looked at the volunteering programmes they had at the university and different campus societies and what they did to help the local community and the less fortunate. I found some societies that seemed interesting and joined them straight away.

Even though I have done all of this to prepare for university, I still felt like I didn’t get anything right. Luckily, my housemates were helpful and helped me with anything I didn’t bring and taught me about things that hadn’t crossed my mind. Each person has a different university experience, some are good, and some are bad. The first few weeks often feel like you’re going through a whirlwind of emotions but once you find a comfortable pace, that’s when things truly start to look up.