By Katie Jones, MA, English Literature
My Blackboard account is activated. The MyBristol app is downloaded with notifications turned on. My UCard collection appointment is booked, with time allowed for the much-discussed queue. I am feeling reasonably in control. That is until: ‘We will just go around the room and quickly introduce ourselves.’ Oh, the horror! With the group leader’s friendly nod of the head, all eyes turn to me to kick off this exercise. How much information to give? Who to make eye contact with? Why didn’t I see this coming (again!)? Such are the questions that run through my mind as I feebly attempt to break the ice of welcome week.
As a second-time fresher arriving at Bristol for my master’s degree, I had hoped that my undergraduate experience would have guaranteed a smooth navigation of first meetings and campus maps alike. I had done this before, and I could do it again…couldn’t I? And yet, in those introductory moments, I once again found myself scrambling for an old hobby to exhume in the guise of a ‘fun fact’.
Make no mistake: a few weeks in, and I have found the city and university alike to be nothing other than welcoming as I retune my student identity to a new place. With housemates who instantly shared with me the best spots in the city, along with ambassadors who pointed me in the right direction around campus, I have felt an early sense of belonging. Very quickly, I have found myself appreciating the greenery of Royal Fort Gardens in the midday sun, the evening buzz around the harbour, and the £1 soup at Hawthorns.
While the neat dashes of my Google Maps have been invaluable, then, my experience as a second-time fresher has been filled with diversions – even more positive for being unexpected. These diversions have led me to pick up a sport I enjoyed back at school, dance a ceilidh for the first time, and put pen to paper to write this article. It may be cliché to say that I have also met a host of interesting and inspiring people along the way, but this has truly been the case.
Inevitably, there have been moments when I have questioned my decision to begin a degree in a new city. The daunting prospect of adjusting to postgraduate study often reared its head during welcome week, especially when I looked beyond the initial of settling-in and ‘giving-it-a-go’ period, to the year ahead. With so many adjustments to make, I couldn’t help but miss the people and places that encapsulate all that is familiar to me.
Sophia Scott
These doubts, however, have been outweighed by my gratitude at having a second chance at being a fresher. The adjective that springs to mind, trite as it may sound, is refreshing. I have had the chance to fill in the gaps of the Freshers’ Week I experienced at eighteen, while taking advantage of the free pass that postgraduate study gives you: the fact that you’ve ‘done this before’ is a helpful shorthand when you don’t want to delve into how your aversion to club nights is as strong now as it was the first time around.
So, while I am relieved to now navigate campus without pivoting mid-street to correct my misdirection, I am excited to embrace what Bristol has to offer – both in my academic life, and social life. It will be some time, I think, before I stop betraying my newcomer status by referring to the Arts and Social Sciences Library, or St. Michael’s Hill, rather than their snappier alternatives. Indeed, I am only slowly plotting out Whiteladies Road, College Green, and the various cafés of Park Street in my mind. However, as I round off my days on campus by heading down the aforementioned hill- with greater speed and composure than when I walked up it- I can appreciate the pastel houses and pinpricks of hot air balloons across a vista that feels increasingly familiar. I look eagerly towards the challenges and Bristolian ‘firsts’ that lie far beyond the horizons of Freshers’ Week.
Featured image: Epigram / Emine Arslan
Where in Bristol would you recommend for a fresher?
