Dear Fresher Me
Oh my first year self, how you make me cringe. You have stained my memory with many black spots of regret over the last four years. But if I could go back and tell you to do things any differently, would I? Let’s discuss….
I know that one of your darkest secrets is that medicine was our dream and UCD was in fact where we wanted to do it. You didn’t want to be there, you didn’t want to do that course but what choice did you have? Try the leaving cert for the third time? Nah. Wasn’t happening. Still, when you headed into college that first day of Freshers’ Week to begin four years of Science you were feeling mighty resentful.
But then something incredible happens.
When you walk through Front Arch at 11 am you will find yourself in an atmosphere that could only be described as a cross between Narnia, Hogwarts and a Will Farrell film. It will take you by complete surprise. You will love it!
You see, I know you were a very shy, quiet and awkward fellow in Secondary School. Looking over that sentence, I realise 4 years on that not much has changed in the way of descriptions but I’m much less so now. But when you saw that Freshers’ Week madness in Front Square for the first time you made a promise to yourself that you were going to get over your fear of the world and get involved as much as you could.
You get very lucky in those first few weeks. First few hours in fact. You will meet yout first good friend solely because you hold the door open for him on the way to our general orientation meeting and we were both as awkward as each other. Yee set out together to make friends and that ye will! And then the cockiness set in…
You decide to run for class rep. You decided that my very first time public speaking will be in front of 300 students in Goldsmith. You decide it will be the best damn off the cuff speech the Gettysburg Address and that you are going to do it wearing a suit jacket and tie (agh the cringe!).
What actually happens is that you suddenly become weak in the knees and a little faintly as you look out into that crowd of your peers all staring at you. I still vividly remember you forgetting everything you planned to say and eventually half-jokingly promised to run around the cricket pitch naked out of desperation of something to say. You eventually come to accept that it was probably the most awkward speech ever given to a class ever.
But hey, you get back on that horse and decide to give societies a go. Your confidence may have waned but your determination to get involved is still strong. Then 3 words jumped out at you – VDP Prison Soccer. It sounded amazing. And so you sign up for it. Out to Mount Joy you went. Out to play some football with some new people and have a bit of fun. What could go wrong? Well, quite a lot apparently. Not only do you never get to play soccer that day, but, very long story short, you are arrested for attempting to smuggle a mobile phone into a prison, officially banned from Mount Joy and Prison soccer is disbanded for the foreseeable future.
If there was one word to describe your experience in college, it would be awkward. But over time you will learn that it wasn’t a bad thing. It is just a thing. I’m able to look back on these events now and laugh at them. I realised that College wasn’t just about getting a degree but rather it was about that old cliché of getting some life experience. About meeting new people and trying new things. A lot of bad was going to come with the good and that was okay because I learned a lot from it. I met some amazing people because of it. Had some wonderful adventures. Did things I never thought I could do and saw people do things they never thought they could do.
So if I could tell you, my first year self, to do anything differently and prevent those black spots from happening, would I? Not a chance. You’ll learn from everything, good and bad.
Ian Mooney is this year’s SU Welfare Officer and can be contacted at [email protected]
