U N I

Hello sweet peas,

If there is one thing I would recommend you all doing, it would be to go to university. I recently started the University of Bath in September 2014 and the past 4 months have been an absolute blast. I have definitely made life-long friends (already!) and literally just taking life as it is. Of course there is an incredible workload to maintain but that’s just the start; on top of living with new people in a different town, becoming completely independent for myself. I am a first year languages student studying Spanish and Italian ab initio (from scratch) and yes, it is very hard but I love being surrounded by people who love the same subjects as me, fully immersed in the language. It is also a chance to encounter new people from different backgrounds and different lives to your own. I am living on campus in a block of 18 rooms so you could say it’s pretty hectic especially sharing a kitchen with 9 people! I have been very lucky in retrospect because I get on with everyone I live with and have made plenty of friends, university was 100% the right path for me.

Joining societies is a rite of passage of university. There are so many opportunities to try new things in arts, food, music, languages and sports. It broadens your friendship with other people outside of your degree and accommodation. I have joined Lacrosse with the hope of joining the 2nd team in my second year. I absolutely love it, and funnily enough I just went to try-outs during freshers week for fun not to commit. In order to improve, I have also joined Bath City Lacrosse team and have played in a regional tournament already. To prove how eager I am, I got my own lacrosse stick for Christmas giving me the motivation to practise in my spare time. When I was younger, I played netball at a national level and during A-levels stopped playing therefore when I began university, I was open to taking up a new sport and am so glad I did. One of the perks of being part of a sport society is the invitation to the sports social which is so much fun. I can’t emphasise enough how many fancy dress costumes have been worn, pints downed and chanting games I have played but it is absolutely bonkers. It also helps to integrate first to fourth years over drinks and dressing up.

It isn’t just sport I have gotten involved with. I also joined the wine society which is brilliant consisting of a chilled evening drinking and learning about wine, munching on bread sticks and having fun with everyone. Each week is different wines from a different country or divided by colour. So far we have tasted Red, White, France and Croatia. Unfortunately I missed South Africa and Champagne due to Lacrosse practice but I can drink that in my own time haha. Do you guys go to/have been to university and did you join any societies? It is important to say that the array of societies can be overwhelming so to join more than four would be foolish because it works better if you have a balance.

So far what I have learnt from university, as a generic, is that this is the place to find yourself and grow into the person your parents raised you to be along with your own personal experiences combined to form your own being. Whatever you do in life, do it well. Mistakes are made but don’t linger too much in the past because you only get one chance to make a difference: for the world, for someone you know or love, for a stranger and more importantly for yourself.

Keep smiling,

Love Poppy x