Hi all
This post is on a slightly different tangent than previous posts but I feel that this topic is something that needs to be discussed.
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As every new university student finds out "Freshers" is what you may know as your first week away from home. Unfortunately, this week (sometimes weeks) is not a nice introduction to your fellow flatmates and course buddies over a cuppa and some biscuits, rather an intense binge drink and hungover cycle many find hard to break or say "No" to due to peer pressure.
Most university's will encourage people to go out to various events laid on and have a good time. However, not everyone will stick to their previous limits. For many students this is the first time they have truly been free from their parents and away from home for a long period of time.
Faced with a new environment , living with strangers and encouraged to socialise most new students hit freshers week hard. Seven days of partying all night and barely staying awake in the first few lectures ( if they make them) does allow you the opportunity to meet your new friends in an intoxicated state making bonding as a group easier. But at what costs ?
For some its just the constant hangover , for others it can be much more serious. In one case a freshers student at UCL collapsed and later died (Fresher student collapses ).
Some may believe that this culture would be easy to say 'No' to. As a girl who likes to go out but not drink I know from experience how pressurised you are and the expectations held by your fellow freshers.
My halls put on a night out to various clubs every night last week. Predrinking would begin at 8 and most nights go on til 10.30 when you would make your way to the club of choice , undoubtedly to buy another drink before stumbling back to halls around 3 - 4 am. Every night at dinner I would get asked the same set of questions - "Are you going out tonight?" "...No" "Oh." and then nine times out of ten the person would ignore me.
By the 4th night I eventually said yes and agreed to go out on the Friday to one of the biggest events here at LSE - "The Crush". By this point it seemed people had began to bond over tales of the night before or shared hangover woes. I felt left out and isolated in my choice to abstain and buckle down to work for a very intense degree.
So I got ready and headed to "pre-drink" in the common room which is where I hit my first problem. I had not gone out yet , I did not know anyone properly enough to go and sit with them and everyone was in groups. I ended up sitting on the couch with a drink , watching TV, hoping that someone I knew a bit better would appear. Luckily a guy from my floor came over and we chatted for a while before he had to go. Shortly after I found another girl who I knew from a brief encounter in the lift and we created our own group to head off.
The night itself was fun and action packed which definitely gave me something to talk about in the morning. I did meet some new people but I also ended up with a huge bump on the head , losing one of the people I went with, getting soaked on the way back and had to evacuate the building due to the fire alarm being set off.
Interestingly though, when I asked my peers if they would talk to their drunk friends when they were both sober the majority said no. This suggests that there is definitely other ways to introduce yourself and break down the barriers between new people.
When it comes to freshers it is a hard line to walk. Yes you want to celebrate getting to uni and surviving on your own but how much is too much?
My advice to freshers next year is be prepared to party but know your limits. Don't be afraid to say "No" some of the time and don't worry about meeting new people. Freshers is just one week out of many and there will be more opportunities along in the future.
As for me I have made more friends through mornings cooking breakfast in the shared kitchen, saying hello to other people on my course and knocking on doors on my corridor. I still talk quite frequently to the people I went out with but some will be better as drinking buddies than study groupies.
Other interesting articles relating to freshers :
http://london.tab.co.uk/2012/09/28/there-was-pigs-blood-everywhere/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9456328/Cambridge-students-warned-they-could-be-attacked-if-they-wear-academic-gowns.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/09/18/freshers-week-2012-facebook-friendly-students-fraud_n_1892667.html
http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2012-10-06/video-warning-on-binge-drinking/
GoodyTwoShoes x
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