On finding campus, classes and confidence

Welcome to First Year Diaries, our student blog series where we look back on the many different experiences of first year at Queen Mary. This entry was written by a dentistry student who wishes to remain anonymous.

The photos used do not represent the people in the stories.

How old were you when you started your first year at Queen Mary? 18

Had you ever been to university before? No

Arrival Day

Tell us a bit about your life growing up

I grew up in a small village in West Yorkshire. I am the eldest of 3 children and was a really shy kid when I was younger. My shyness carried on throughout the years so even in secondary school I was a shy person but in college, I started to be a bit more confident. In school, I always had good grades and it made my friends deem me as the smart one (there were only 3 of us). I think being the eldest out of my family gave me some sort of motivation to go to university to make my family proud and I think in Year 11 was when I really settled on trying to get into a good one.

How did it feel when you got to campus for the first time?

Me, my brother and parents went with the car full of all my stuff. We needed more room so we left my sister behind (she didn't mind though). We left in the morning so we had more time during the day to unpack. Once we got into London and towards the Barbican area, we got kinda confused on where to enter and park the car but we did eventually figure it out. When I got there, I was feeling very nervous until I went to the foyer to get my key. That was when I started to feel a bit more excited - like 90% nervousness and 10% excited. My palms were very sweaty and I was kind of feeling nauseous. However, I was lucky enough to get a limited edition lanyard on that day; it was to celebrate 900 years of Barts (something like that), so made me feel much better.

Which hall of residence did you live in?

Dawson Hall

Did you start unpacking as soon as you got to the room?

Yes, but it was more of house/flat stuff rather than my clothes and personal things. We brought a few big suitcases and since my room was small it was not going to fit. That was why we decided to unpack a bit so there was less stuff for me to do and we could put the empty storage back into the car. My mum decided to help with my bed, so she helped with putting on sheets, cover, and all of that. I think I would've been so lost if my parent weren't there helping me out.

Tell us about meeting your first new flatmate

It was actually on move-in day. Me and my family were going to go out to a nearby supermarket to stock up on things and as were leaving my flatmate in front was moving in. She seemed friendly and when we said our introductions it turns out she was doing the same course as me. I felt glad that I was able to meet up with someone so early on, it definitely eased some of my nerves, but there was no immediate feeling that this is going to be best friend for next few years. It was more, this person was friendly and I hoped to see them more around campus.

What did you do in the evening?

I had a goodbye meal with my parents and brother. I didn't think I would start feeling homesick already but I did, so I couldn't really eat that much, but it was nice spending my time with them before they left. They were driving back so didn't want to leave too late, but were still able to drop me off back to my room before they left.

How were you feeling when you went to sleep that night?

Really homesick. That whole weekend being my first time away from home was not good. I definitely started doubting myself; was this the right choice? Would it have been easier if I picked a university closer to home? Would I make any friends here? What if I don't make friends and I'm stuck alone? All of these thoughts were quite negative and it wasn't easy feeling like this. Despite all this, I somehow had a good night's sleep so I'm not sure how that happened.

Freshers Week

Describe freshers week at Queen Mary in one word:

Eventful

What did you get up to?

My induction was on the Monday so I went to that with a few of my flatmates after I found out we were all in the same course. Once I started to hang out and talk to some new people, I found my homesickness starting to ease. Sometimes during the week it would come back, but nothing as bad as the first weekend. I also went to a few freshers fairs; the one at the Mile End campus and the one at the Whitechapel campus so I got a lot of free stuff. I don't really remember much as most of the week it was just me trying to figure life out and learning the ways of flat life and becoming entirely dependent on myself.

How did you feel when the first day of classes was looming?

Honestly it did feel like it came out of nowhere but I was glad for the distraction it kept my homesickness at bay. I thought there was going to be smooth transition for the first week but nope there was so many lectures; I was definitely not prepared for this. Despite all this, I was excited to start my degree and was really looking forward to it.

The First Week of Classes

What was your very first class/lecture like?

It felt very intimidating! There were so many people! I remember it being quite a lot of content but the information itself was not challenging.

Did you meet any memorable people in your classes?

My group of friends that I hang out with now, I met during lectures. I have an irrational fear of being late so I came early to everything (enough I had some quiet time before the lecture began). There would be the same people who also came in early so I would just sit next to them. It came to a point where numbers started to decrease but the same girls were still there and we would sit next to each other in the same spot no matter who came first. This was the main reason I came to lectures just to see them.

One Year On…

How did your feelings about your classes change with time?

Classes got harder. The workload was heavy. There was so much content to learn and memorise and that was the hardest part. The understanding part came easier to me but the amount of content I needed to know was definitely a lot. It also didn't feel like my degree, it felt like I had picked Biology instead.

On the whole, what was your first year at Queen Mary like?

It was very different from what I was expecting. I am still friends with some of the people I met in the first week, but not all of them. There were some times during the year when I started to doubt myself and had feelings of regret, about the course I picked and life in general. When this happened I tried to do something I enjoyed that wasn't studying and reminded myself why I had picked this course in the first place.

I guess some life lessons I learned along the way would be mainly related to living by myself without the help of my parents, so learning to do laundry, go grocery shopping for myself, cooking for myself. These things may seem trivial, but going from 18 years of living with my parents and then suddenly being by myself was hard! But I stuck it out, learned from my mistakes and kept going.

If you had any advice for current or incoming first year students, what would it be?

There will be some hard times during your first year. This is inevitable, but there will also be some very amazing times so don't forget about the positives during your negatives. I would recommend keeping a journal to write down your thoughts. Don't feel pressured that you need to write in it every day because I didn't, do it when you want to, it helps even if you think it might not.

Don't worry about making friends, but if you are worried then put yourself out there! Be the first one to say hello! Coming from a very shy person when I was younger, I guess I made it my mission to be more confident, and now I have a very good group of friends and I'm happy.