Students' and Parents' Experiences
The Big Move
"We´ll fit it all in the car," my mum was heard crying on the day of The Big Move, "but only if we can programme it to follow a route without a driver." My life was packed away in boxes, and she was concerned about how we´d make the forty-five minute journey up the M1 without breaking the suspension under the weight of my luggage! A bit of tweaking and we managed to fit most of it in the car. "You sure you need all this? You´ll still be coming home, you know."
The drive up to Sheffield was possibly the most nerve-wracking of my life. Not living in halls and opting instead for privately owned student flats, I was unsure of what to expect. Couple this with the fact that circumstances meant I moved in a day earlier than most and you have a very jittery teenager on your hands! I was the first in my flat to move in so I enjoyed my first and last night of complete peace and quiet before the remaining seven flatmates moved in the following day. One by one they lugged their lives up three flights of stairs, each peering nervously through my open door at me in my spotless room before beginning to unpack in their own. Their arrival indicated the start of an exciting and very rewarding experience.
Intro Week offered a variety of different activities of which my flatmates and I took full advantage. There were nights, however, when we felt like doing some true girly bonding and stayed in with a DVD and wine. These girly nights are, I feel, what created the bond we all still share. Some say that the friends you meet during the early stages of your `University Experience´ do not tend to be the friends you stick to, but I can say, without hesitation, that these girls are my best friends.
The start of term brought a new challenge: routine. The majority of us are not `morning people´, so settling into our new schedules was difficult at first. Once you find your bearings in Sheffield though, nothing seems easier than dragging yourself out of bed for that nine o´clock lecture. It´s probably the only one you´ll have until lunchtime anyway! Getting into a routine involving eating, sleeping, studying and partying is actually a lot easier than it sounds - especially if you have persuasive friends to coax you into it!
I didn´t want to visit home too early as I didn´t want to miss out on anything going on in the flat or trigger feelings of homesickness. After four weeks, I returned home and found myself looking forward to getting back to university!
When I speak to my friends or my parents, I find myself referring to my flat as `home´. After only a month in Sheffield, that is already how I see it. This sums up my time here so far; I am both happy and proud to be able to call Sheffield my home.
Sian-Louise Jones
Sociology
First Year