University officially starts on enrolment day. Processing that exact thought, as an immature, young eighteen-year-old boy is immensely daunting. Personally, I felt a mixture of emotions that day that I will never forget. My enrolment day would be different to most; I already live in London so I am one of those fortuitous souls that commutes every day. Unlike most, I didn’t have the excitement of meeting new flatmates or finding out how big my new room would be. Nevertheless, here are five emotions I felt during my university enrolment day and how I think you can prepare yourself for what is to come.
We all like to think we can be trusted by adults, that sense of freedom we all ever wanted comes with adulthood. University represents adulthood, a chance to look after yourself but as I found out, look more after others. That is scary. Deadly scary. I felt ridiculously anxious boarding the train to London town, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I remember distinctly having no thoughts, very strange sensation. You honestly cannot anticipate the emotions you’ll feel during your first semester at university and as ready as you think you are, enrolment day reassures you that, no matter how hard it gets, you are capable of it all, otherwise you wouldn’t be at enrolment day.
Probably the worst part of enrolment day is remembering everything. Luckily QMUL offered a pre-enrolment so most of the heavy duty work was done online, but there is always a worry you’ve forgotten something. I must have triple-checked the requirements, I think I even dug out my GCSE results if that was needed for scrutiny. There is truthfully no reason to worry, as long as you have what they want which normally takes form as identification and enrolment forms, you’ll have a rite of passage to your freshers’ week at university.
I hadn’t been back to QMUL for at least seven months, so it is fair to say I may have forgotten my way. Being the arrogant and egotistical Londoner I am, of course decided to not look at any maps and use my geographical knowledge (I’m studying human geography at QMUL) to find my way. You can probably tell that from this story already that it was a complete shambles. The only thing I managed to do was get on the train from where I live to Cannon Street. This was a personal addition; you may feel embarrassed but in a different way to how I did.
You’re all enrolled, ready and raring to go. You’ve got the lanyard and now you are officially a university student. That’s it. Parties. Booze. Fun and sadly work. While this is one emotion, it really is a culmination of all possible feelings.
On my journey home, I really took a step back and thought; ‘am I ready for this?’, you start to question your choices and make yourself feel self-conscious. If you have this feeling, best to talk to one of your friends and forget about the worries you may have and enjoy your freshers’ week while it lasts.
I call this part “the END” for starters, it’s coming to the end of the piece and two some people see enrolment day as the end of their childhood. Becoming an adult, that’s what uni enrolment day means to some people. I didn’t see as the end; I saw it as a new beginning. Good luck with uni after enrolment day… you’re going to need it.
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