Navigating First Year University: Insights from a Youthline Young Ambassador

In case this helps anyone who may be struggling in their first year of university, I hope sharing my experience will be useful.

I started university in 2018. I had spent all of my education in a state school, and I didn’t realise just how much of a shock moving to university — and the change in the structure of education — would be for me.

The way lessons were taught was completely different, and going from having so much structure to having so little was something I had to learn to manage quickly in order to keep up.

The level of knowledge that was expected in my first year was far higher than I had anticipated.

On top of this, there was the massive social pressure — to make new friends, attend every social gathering, and avoid being seen as a ‘loser.’

For me, first year was probably the biggest shock to the system I’ve ever experienced. I just about scraped through with enough credits to move on to second year, and I spent most of my spare time going over lecture slides again and again.

It was only after the fourth time of re-reading that I began to understand: university isn’t always what it’s made out to be. It can be incredibly hard at times, but you do grow as a person. And most importantly — you are 100% not the only person feeling lost.