Students' and Parents' Experiences
The First Few Weeks
It´s an irritating cliché, but how better to describe it? During the week leading up to my start at university my feelings were mixed. I was undeniably excited but also apprehensive. However, on the actual morning, panic suddenly overpowered all other emotions. The day had finally arrived and during the six hour journey here from South Wales I began to realise that perhaps I wasn´t quite as ready for it as I had anticipated, or as I had hoped.
Despite applying for self-catered halls I had instead been offered a room in a Victorian house on Endcliffe Crescent that didn´t appear in the `Home from Home´ booklet. I didn´t really know what to expect but I received a very pleasant surprise when I arrived. Huge rooms and a garden the size of a football pitch.
I was impressed by the accommodation, felt completely at ease with the welcoming housemates I had met and had enough food to last me a month. So why was I still in a complete state of panic?? I literally do not think I have ever been so scared about anything in my life. Nothing specific was worrying me, just the whole idea of this complete and sudden change in my life, and my inability to shake the feeling that at any moment my parents were going to abandon me.
Yet the feeing lasted no more than a day. As each new housemate arrived we introduced ourselves and made a team trip down to the local Tesco. An excellent night getting to know one another, ending in Earnshaw bar, resulted in my panic completely evaporating. We now all get on extremely well, and I find that living in a house of twelve there is always someone different to talk to in the communal areas. We have also met people in the neighbouring houses and a variety of different people through our diverse range of courses.
It doesn´t matter how much people tell you that `everyone´s in the same boat´ because you will always be apprehensive, or in my case absolutely petrified, on arrival. It is, however, absolutely true. Everyone will be feeling the same as you and will go out of their way to be as friendly as possible. I´m just hoping that the rest of my time here in Sheffield will be as terrific fun as the first five weeks…
Clare Jones
English Language & Linguistics
First Year