University years are a significant time in any person’s life, if they choose and can afford to go. It was definitely a poignant four years of my life and looking back, I know I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t make that decision to attend.
There are so many small decisions around university that can lead you in so many different directions in your life. It’s scary really, when you think about it deeply.
Where I would be today if I hadn’t chosen Liverpool, or if I had chosen to stay in a different halls in my first year, had chosen a different course? I’d have a different set of friends, a different career, and a completely different experience.
A lot of your experience of university is down to luck. It’s luck of the draw who you’re put into a flat with, who will be on your course, who your lecturers will be and what your experience is like.
Is university worth the debt?
I’m pretty sure I’ve written a blog post all about this before, but in my experience, I paid for life experience rather than a degree.
I paid for four years of growing up and becoming an adult, of being independent, standing on my own two feet and making decisions about my future that no one else could make for me.
I also paid for years of binge drinking, eating too many takeaways, partying until 6am and making decisions I’d later regret. But that’s all part of the fun of university, right?
For me, the debt was worth the life experience and the friends I made. It was worth moving out at 18 and learning how to live independently. The degree itself definitely didn’t set me up for the working world, but the life outside of the classroom did.
If you’re going to do it, do it 100%
A key factor for enjoying my time at university was probably that I adopted Liverpool as my second home. A few of my friends at university would fly back to Ireland or head home at any opportunity – whether it was the weekend, a midterm break or a bank holiday.
But I found the longer I stayed, the more settled I became and the more I felt like I really belonged in Liverpool.
This can be a huge issue if you go to university in Belfast for example. Since Belfast is only a 30 minute drive from where I live, a lot of students live around campus for four days a week and come back home at the weekend, or they commute full-time instead and live at home to save money.
Either option is totally fine and a good way to save money, but it won’t feel like you’ve fully moved out if your mum is still doing your washing every weekend. Plus, you’re coming home to everything you know at the weekend and not fully experiencing living independently.
If you can do it, commit 100% to this new place and this new experience. It’s hard at the beginning when you don’t know anyone of course, but the more you stick it out, the easier it will become.
The drinking culture
When I think back to my best memories of university, they’re mostly all of nights out with my friends. My best memories are never in the classroom or in the library.
There is a huge drinking culture at university with freshers week, society nights and cheap drinks/promo nights. Binge drinking is rife and the hangovers aren’t great either. It may have changed slightly since I’ve been at university, but going out each night was how you made friends.
I definitely don’t miss going out every night of the week as I love nothing more now than sitting in at night watching TV, but I’m starting to show my age now.
But since the pandemic, I’m not sure if this is still the case. Do the kids still go out every night of the week and go to Popworld? Are there still 80p drink nights in Belfast?
With the rise of wellness interest, sober-curiosity and 0.0% alcohol drinks, maybe the binge drinking culture of university just doesn’t exist anymore.
University isn’t for everyone
You might go to university with the expectation that you’ll make a huge group of girlfriends, find your future husband, graduate and live happily ever after.
And that might not be the case, because it certainly wasn’t for me. Yes, I made good friends, but they were dotted around from my course, my flat, my jobs and through friends of friends.
And I definitely didn’t find my future husband during my university days.
The best advice is to not go with any huge expectations. Go to university because you want to learn, you want to be independent, you want to meet new people and have new experiences.
It will be what you make of it and what you put into it. If you don’t show up to your lectures, then you probably won’t get much in return from your academic tutors. If you don’t socialise and integrate with others around you, you probably won’t feel any reciprocation.
Put yourself out there, try new things and be open to new possibilities and hopefully your university years are a positive experience. But they don’t have to be the best years of your life.
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