For all you lucky freshers starting university in September

*spoiler*

Get ready for the best year of your life. 

I understand that everyone is telling you this, whether they have just finished first year, or even if they graduated 10 years ago, but WE DO NOT LIE.

You'll be sitting in your garden during the summer after first year, crying into your keyboard wishing you could be the one crossing off the days on your countdown calendar until term starts from the first time. (Yes this is my current situation.)

Packing for university:

If your car doesn't end up resembling this, then I salute you.

My biggest piece of advice?

Try and find your flatmates on social media in advance of move-in day and decide who's going to bring what.

Despite what you may think, you do not need to bring five plates, three bowls, five sets of cutlery, a toaster, two kettles, five pans, a wok and the entirety of your mum's spice rack, because chances are your flatmates have got you covered.

And what better way to bond with your new flatmates than asking if you can borrow their garlic crusher! (TRUST ME, GARLIC CRUSHERS ARE A GAME CHANGER. You can thank me later.)

My flat mate Rahul, (HI RAHUL IF YOU'RE READING THIS, I MISS YOU) moved into halls with a bowl, a plate and approximately two forks, two knives and a spoon, because he just borrowed things as and when he needed them.

So if you're not up for unpacking (and re-packing remember!) a tonne of kitchen items, be smart and be more like Rahul!

In terms of what to bring to decorate your room, well that's down to you!

I will shamefully admit that I did search my uni halls' location tag on Instagram to look at how everyone else had decorated their rooms and to get some inspiration.. (Please say other people did that and it wasn't just me??)

I used to work in the Stationery department at John Lewis, so when summer clearance rolled around before I started uni, I went HAM on the stationery spending.

This wasn't even half of the stationery I took with me...

(WHY ON EARTH DID I FEEL THE NEED TO BUY TWO WEEKLY PLANNERS WHEN THERE ARE ONLY 52 WEEKS IN A YEAR??)

I used one sheet of the orange weekly planner during first year, that was it..

All I will say is, you are not moving to Mars, there will be stationery shops nearby if you do, god forbid, run out of sticky notes or revision cards.

But do bring some home comforts, because the first week or two does feel a bit alien and a bit lonely because you don't really know your flat mates or course mates that well yet. Putting up photos of your friends and family and even bringing a teddy, (yes i did this and yes my flat mates all love him) will make your little old box room feel a bit more like home.

P.s: BRING A DOORSTOP!! I was given this piece of advice by someone who had just finished first year last year and I'm so glad she told me it! Wedge your door open whilst you are moving in so that your flatmates are sort of forced to say hello when they walk past, that way things are a bit less awkward when all of the parents leave.

Meeting your course mates

I still laugh/cringe when I think back to the first day that I actually had to go into uni and meet my course mates.

Luckily as journalists we were all like-minded, nosy people who wanted to see what everyone looked like before we'd even started. So someone set up a course chat so that we could all vent to each other about what we thought the course was going to be like (oh how very, very wrong we all were, hahahaha).

Everyone who lived in my halls had organised to meet out in the courtyard so that we could all get the bus together, but when we got there everybody just stood in different parts of the courtyard looking up at each other then back down at their phones??

Then a girl called Claudia, (my BAMMJ OG) came out, who Harvey, another boy on my course (also my BAMMJ OG) would later reveal that he remembered as the 'nice asian girl in the yellow jumper' (we all laugh at it now) and thankfully asked, "Are you doing journalism?!" Then suddenly it was like bees to a honeypot! Everyone just surrounded us!

Then we all trundled off to get the bus together, probably making the most horrific small talk..

So a note to you all, don't be afraid to 'do a Claudia' on your first day! Be assertive and make friends with your course mates!

Flatmates can change from year to year but you're stuck with your course mates until the very end!

I then met the majority of my course and I must say I have been very lucky. Both my flatmates and course mates have been bloody wonderful!

Flat 19 and all of the (surviving) BAMMJ's, (sorry about the cringe reference). You're all gems xxxxxx

And don't worry if you don't make friends immediately, or if the one person you made friends with during freshers week ends up being put in a different seminar group to you. You'll make more friends trust me!!

Freshers Week

Or Freshers fortnight in Bournemouth's case??

I have one monumental piece of advice for you.

DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO PURCHASING FRESHERS WEEK WRISTBANDS OR TICKETS BEFORE YOU GET TO UNI!!

Nine times out of ten, the event is not close to selling out, the promo team are just trying to pressure you into buying a ticket! And if you've spent £50 on a wristband but all of your flatmates and course mates have a different one for different events, you'll end up wasting more money on buying tickets for those events.

Just wait until you get there to gage what everyone else is doing!

Alternatively, ask second and third years or your halls reps which events they would recommend and what clubs are good, because obviously they've done it all before and will be more than willing to advise you on the best places to go.

(Anyone going to Bournemouth next year, any events at Cameo and also Lollipop on Fridays at Old Fire Station are the places to be!)

Starting your course

This is usually the moment when you realise that university isn't just jagerbombs, VK's, fancy dress and Dominos pizza.. Yes you have voluntarily signed up for three to four years (or more if you're brave and are planning on doing a Masters or a PHD) of higher education...

As strange as it sounds, I was quite excited to start my course, studying something that I was actually genuinely interested in and getting to use all of the fancy equipment, it was all a very exciting prospect for me!

But then the lectures and seminars began and during the first few weeks and I felt like I was drowning in work.

Anyone who says that the step up from A-levels to uni isn't as bad as GCSE's to A-Level is a LIAR.

You'll find yourself doing extra reading and making notes on book chapters, that lasts for approximately a month (if that). So just keep going at it and don't forget you can always rely on your course mates to console you and listen to your venting about how you regret your course choice.

Another big point:

You will question your course choice and the prospect of dropping out pretty much every day, so don't panic you're not the only one!

Going out

"First year doesn't count"- The one statement that your friends will use against you mercilessly in first year to try and convince you to come out.

You'll be resilient and say no the first ten times.

Then you'll think, "I could just wake up really early tomorrow morning and do it and realistically was I going to get any work done this late at night anyway?"

Your friends will give you this look:

You'll get ready in record speed, (something that I have realised I just CANNOT do..)

Your friends started drinking two hours ago, so to get you on their level, they rig all of the drinking games so that you have to drink every five seconds.

Your walk to the club is spent talking absolute rubbish to the guy that you just met when you crossed the road, (or starting the weekly five minute night-out Snapchat story that I have become infamous for..)

Once you finally get inside:

You'll experience a multitude of expressions at the bar:

Then this:

Realising that you can't escape without doing it:

Hitting the dance floor:

Then you see people from your course that you've never spoken to, but you're fuelled with jaeger and the sweet taste of VK's, so you go bounding over to them like they're your best friend:

3am comes around and it's time to begin the long trek home, but there's only one thing on your mind:

You get back to the flat and decide the who what and where.

Who's flat you're going to, where it is and what you're going to eat.

(In my case it was: Claudia's, flat 53 and 15 chicken nuggets.)

Knocking really loudly, even though your friend told you not to because they don't want to wake their flatmates up:

Everyone has somehow managed to get their baking tray in the tiny oven like an advanced game of tetris.

You've put your phone timer on, you talk absolute rubbish just waiting for the carbs to cook so that they'll hopefully sober you up.

The timer goes off:

Food has never tasted so good:

You start talking yet more rubbish into the early hours of the morning until you realise it's light outside and that you should probably go home:

Exams

For goodness sake ATTEND ALL OF YOUR LECTURES AND MAKE GOOD NOTES THAT YOU UNDERSTAND.

I add 'that you understand' on the end, because when you go through the lecture slides and you're like 'wtf does that even mean??'

Having notes written in your own, probably dumbed down words will be an absolute godsend for your revision.

Make revision cards as you go (if you can).

Hahahaha next joke.

I had every intention of doing this, but the workload just got too much..

However, if you have better time management skills than I do (it's not hard), then I would advise making pretty revision cards and mind maps once you finish a topic, rather than leaving it all until the end.

If all else fails, get ready to learn a whole unit in the space of a couple of weeks..

Leaving for summer

The feeling when you finish exams is literally the best.

It's like freshers week all over again except you actually know people and you know where everything is!

But then you realise that leaving for summer means that you've actually finished first year and that you're never going to be a fresher again...

You watch at the window as each of your flatmates/coursemates move out and flee the nest:

(This is my favourite GIF in the whole of this post, because this was legit me.)

You start to pack up your room, 1. Regretting that you didn't take things home gradually when you went home during the year. 2. Realising that the more things you pack up, the more your room doesn't even feel like yours anymore:

You try and squeeze everything back into the car whilst your mum is saying,

"Well we got it all down here, so we must be able to get it all back!"

But what she doesn't realise is that during your time there, you've made approximately thirty ASOS orders, twenty Missguided Orders and two Urban Outfitters Orders (because UO is expensive AF and you could only justify the prices twice with your measly student loan.)

Finally, you drive away from halls, realising that you're gonna miss your halls so much and worst of all, that you probably won't see everyone again for another 3 months:

I hope this post helped to settle your nerves and answer some of the questions you've been thinking about?

If not, well I hope you enjoyed the array of GIFs!

Sending you so many positive (and severely jealous) vibes.

Love Kerry xxx