The Top Five Reasons to get involved with Societies

If there is anything I regret about my time at Swansea University so far, it is that I haven't joined enough societies.

As much as I like putting that down to my 'extortionate' workload, realistically, it is due to my pure laziness , lack of enthusiasm and lack of motivation that I am not involved in all of the societies that I would like to be. In my first year, I spent at least 6 hours, if not more, wandering around the Fresher's Fair trying to find something I'd enjoy, (whilst bagging all the free pens I could fit in my pockets), and even at the end of it, I wasn't sure I could commit to attending anything weekly as I was just getting to grips with everything that was going on.

In my second year, I was a part of the Fresher's Fair, manning a stall trying to entice people into writing for The Waterfront newspaper as I battled round two of severe Fresher's Flu. Again, I had major hopes of joining lots of societies like cheerleading, netball, Hogwarts appreciation, French and Photography. But as I wandered aimlessly around the fair, (again, grabbing all the free stuff I could get my hands on), I never really got round to it.

Now, I'm halfway through my degree and still, all I have managed to achieve is signing up for the newspaper, drinking my liver into a comatose, successfully scheduling my classes around showings of Jeremy Kyle and doing a bit of work towards my degree. It doesn't really seem to me that I have utilised my time here to the best of my ability.

This thought was particularly renewed in the midst of the Swansea University Students' Union Full Time Officers elections. (Try saying that twice as fast.) Election night is always particularly exciting for me - not because it's probably the biggest event of the year for the paper or because of all the emotional candidates that add up for some fantastic coverage, but because I get to work alongside what I refer to as my 'Waterfront family', to produce some incredible work.

My Waterfront FamilyFrom left to right - Jake, Alan, Craig, Catrin, Fred, Me, Jon, Sam, Melvin, Chris, Lauren, Emma, Ina and Sophie. 

I've been working at the Waterfront now about a year and a half and the people there have literally become my family away from home. There are really no words to describe how wonderful these people are, but they have become my brothers and sisters and, more importantly, my very best friends.  I spend every single day with these people, putting together a paper, finding stories and working hard and yet, at the end of it all, I don't want to kill them. That, my friends, is love.

My point is that I should've joined more societies and met more people like this.

So, all this got me thinking of why exactly students should and do join societies. Whilst I may not have had the true motivation to get off my arse and do it, I think I've nailed it into five points.

1) Smart students have realised that societies don't just mean sport

When I initially started studying at university, I was under the clichéd and very American impression that all societies were going to be very much sport orientated. With my being 'athletically challenged' leading to my inability to understand the offside rule, (no matter how many times the salt shakers are brought out), and my motivation to pass my driving test on the first try, it was the one thing that was making me dread my upcoming time at university.  However, it turns out that there are societies out there to cater to everyone and everything from snitch and bitch societies to Quidditch societies, (I've done my research - these are genuine societies).  For me, this was fantastic news, especially as I was born and bred to be a writer, not a runner.

2) Some students just can't rely on their CVs

CVs can either be the bane of your life or wonderful, magical slips of paper that grant you access to money.  I've had it constantly drummed into me throughout my education that employers are now being increasingly greedy and wanting someone who has more than a good degree. Being a part of a society proves to potential employers that you have had previous experiences of fun that will prepare you for the staff parties throughout the year. This separates you from someone who focuses all their time and energy on their degrees. Sure, it's great to get a first, but I'd rather get a 2.1 and have fun doing it than get a first and be a boring sod for the rest of my life.

3) Knowing that socialising is key

The very last thing you want to do at university is not to socialise and meet new people. Societies give the nervous and shy students to meet other like minded students who they can drink with, chat with, drink with, have coffee mornings with, drink with and generally enjoy themselves with. Plus, you genuinely do make lifelong friends through all this stuff.

4) Wanting to learn new things

Ah all you freshers with your shiny new backpacks, student accounts, notepads, pen and stars in your eyes! You've just passed what you feel have been the hardest exams you'll ever have to sit, you're free of the shackles of sixth form and A levels, you're free from the time old 'you'll live by my rules when you live under my roof' argument, and you finally have your own space. You think you know it all but think, take a step back between finding the best things to pawn when your student loan runs out and consider that you may actually learn something new through joining a society. Since joining the Waterfront, I have learnt so much about the career I'm planning to go into. And not just that, I've learnt so much about myself - what exactly I want to do, where I want to go and who I am as a person. Societies are just one massive learning curve which is why they're so fantastic.

5) ALL THE DISCOUNTS AND FREE THINGS

Some societies, (not all, but some), offer you some worthwhile perks for joining them. Apart from all the new things that you'll be learning, all the friends you'll be making and all the alcohol that you will undoubtedly be drinking in socials, discounts and free things are available. And you know how much students love discounts and free things. Enough said.  

If that's everything covered here, I'm off to start up a 'writers not runners' society - I'm a lover of good alliteration and, well, if there's a way to accept that I'll more likely be writing about the 2016 Olympics than competing in it, then starting a society about it is it. And hey, I have a whole day left of freedom before I dive head first back into my ridiculous 'workload'. I may as well use the remainder of my time wisely and join a few more societies, right?

The new symbol for the writers not runners society! 

All the inspiration you'll need to join or start up your very own society. ----> Top 20 amazingly weird university societies 

The student coming of age in 10 steps.

As we students at Swansea University near the second week of 'Freshers', I cannot help but look back on my Freshers' week with fond memories that are, although blurred in some places, generally good. Last year, I drank my liver into a state of shock, fell over on some cobbles in shockingly high heels and drank so many shots of sambuca that I succeeded in getting completely hammered in a mere fifteen minutes. Personally, I think that's a world record. 

 I have tried my best this past week to go out whenever possible - I even went out on Thursday after being struck down by Fresher's Flu the very same day - (if you aren't sure what that is, you'll know soon enough.) Recreating the feeling of being a Fresher is pretty much impossible, and while I love going out and getting drunk as much as the next student, it doesn't really have the same glamour to it as when you are a Fresher.

In America, it's called 'Orientation Week', or 'Freshman Week.' Australians call them 'First years', which is straight and simply to the point. New Zealanders call them 'Freshies', which I think I'm going to adopt as my reference to them too. It's much better than my romantically starved friends and I calling them 'Fresh meat'. We are Shakespeare's in the making.

Everywhere you look, 'Freshies' are going to be referred to as something different. Whether they are Freshmen, First years, Freshies or Freshers', there are certain rites of passage, if you will, that remain the same for all first year university students the world over. Things that every student will go through at least once if not in their first year, then the two years following and, if you're anything like the infamous few at Swansea University who have been around since it opened, for the rest of their lives.

1. Freshers Fayre madness

From cheerleading to reading poetry, Skyrim appreciation to football, there are clubs and societies for excited students to join for pretty much anything you could possibly imagine, and a whole load more. This year, a Hogwarts society joined the ranks of Swansea, (much to my delight) and apparently, they've been raking in the freshers'. I mean it when I say that there is a society for everyone. At the fayre, they'll all be after some 'fresh meat'... or refresher meat - putting pens in your pockets, giving you mugs for advertisement, taking your phone numbers and email addresses, begging for you to come to socials and generally bragging that their society is the best thing since sliced bread. This is all done in the vain hope that you'll spend your student loan signing up.

If it's money that they're after, hold out a little bit. I always find that the athletic societies tend to be more at ease with bleeding you dry but, it is worth it to shed all those pounds and get involved in some initiations that will make you cringe in years to come. There's no rush to sign up, but take all the free things that you can! Freshers' fayre is one massive orgy of free things - completely worth going to.

2. All the pub crawls and dressing up like tools.

Pub crawls and dressing up are possibly the most unoriginal ideas that student parents have about the questionable activities that their children are up too whilst living away from home. The reason for all the cliched ideas is that students generally do go on lots and lots of pub crawls and wear lots and lots of fancy dress. For the lolz - naturally. 

Last night, I swear to God that I saw some Freshers' dressed up as Dalmatians. I really want to say that they were celebrating how awesome dogs are or something but, alas, no. It was purely for the lolz - absolute legends already.

Oh and mother, father, Nan and other family relations - look away. NOW.

NOTE: Make sure you have sorted your Facebook security settings so that the photos of your goings on will never ever ever make it back to your parents. For some reason, seeing your child down a shot or five of tequila upsets some parents. Goodness knows why.

Steph and I - I'm the one looking like a complete tool

3. Your details

During Freshers' week and beyond, you will discover that there is a list of sacred facts that students list off to each other. This ensures that you can befriend anyone. Your name, course and hometown usually do the trick, though if you are destined to be more than 'freshers' friends', the conversation may expand to where you are currently living and if you'd like a free drink. They might even ask for your number. Only give your phone number to people you expect to see again after that night. I have learnt this the hard way.

4. Learning that what happens in Freshers' week, stays in Freshers' week

Parents - look away NOW.

Flings and other acts of drunken futility are the stuff of the Freshers' experience. Above getting a degree, moving into a new house and the nights out, there is one thing that most students are looking forward to when they get to university. Everyone hopes that they can meet a nice young lady/man to schmooze in the students' union or local pubs and clubs, of course, with a little alcohol to fuel a testosterone filled system.

All that testosterone in the air fuels the excitement, the dancing, the alcohol and, well, the kissing that usual happens before the name knowing bit. Obviously, people try to do it as discreetly as possible, but all the alcohol often means that everything gets a bit muddled up. Anyways , just try to adopt the tactic of smiling in the face of your embarrassment to your new flatmates and, of course, to the person you kissed. Not that I would know, but apparently, it works.

5. Getting 'carparked' and calling all your friends from home.

You moved into your new 'home' approximately 48 hours ago, and yet, you have the urge to call up all your friends from your previous life and tell them how much you love them, miss them and how much fun you are having being constantly drunk and living off cheese and toast. After you have a drink or ten in you, the urge is impossible to resist.

It'll be the usual spiel - making promises to visit each other, telling them about your new friends, discussing how long ago school seems like and blah blah blah. It doesn't sound particularly interesting, but if you're anything like my friends and I, these conversations can last hours.

Plus, the likelihood is that they've also had a fair few drinks and will be drunkenly screaming the same things back at you, which means double excitement. YAY!

Any Swansea students wanna guess where this is?

6. Drink more alcohol than you have consumed food... in your lifetime.

Once upon a time, when I was in my first year, I decided to mix some alcohol to make a special kind of 'cocktail' which all students will happen upon at one point. This, my friends, is called the 'dirty pint' and is only drunk on your birthday or on a dare.  The rule is to always finish it off with a dash of blackcurrant or cranberry to make it look less menacing.

It tastes vile to be perfectly honest. It destroys your insides completely. It stains your lips and tongue for a good few days. But, it's cheap, it'll get you nice and drunk and well, you only live once right?  

7. Freshers' Flu

Ah Freshers' flu - a name that fills students with fear. Around 90% of students are struck down with the illness in their first week of university, including symptoms of headache, coughing, sore throat, fever and some general discomfort. Unfortunately, there's only so much alcohol abuse that the human body can stand. One week of solid drinking, sleeping and eating kebabs will leave you yearning to be back at home in bed with some soup courtesy of your mum.

It's all about timing really. Time is well and you'll be in full health, all excited and shiny faced for your lectures the next week. And if not... are lectures really that important?

Well... yeah but... you get my drift.

8. Challenge someone more experienced than you to a drinking game

This year, I have noticed that many second years, (like myself), seem horrified at the thought of being seen as a Fresher, which is down to one simple factor - we don't want to participate in drinking games with our already severely damaged livers. Being in your first year means that you discover a whole host of interesting, new and exciting things about yourself. For most, that means finding out that you're an 'expert' in a whole host of drinking games - from blackjack to ring of fire, you are a pro. Well, you are according to yourself anyway.

Courtesy of Student Beans 

Truth is, you aren't. Challenge any masters or third year student to a drinking challenge and well, you'll pretty much get your arse kicked. Losing games is never fun and often, the result is downing a pint of Strongbow or Guinness. So yeah, good luck with that.

9. Stand outside your new halls at 4am after a fire alarm

I lived on campus last year and I am not lying when I say that there were around 3 to 4 fire alarms a month. We only had one legitimate fire in the duration of the year. And even that was just a bit of smoke after someone burned their oven chips. Seriously, who makes oven chips at 5am?

The likelihood of that happening to you is up in the top ten. With drunken students cooking at all hours and student smokers who think that they can get away with having a cigarette hanging out their bedroom window is more often than not the case of the fire alarm going off.

It's a good way to bond with your flatmates though - complaining about how cold it is in your pyjamas, watching drunken students try to get into their room while campus security try to stop them and expressing how pissed off you are at whoever set it off makes for interesting conversation beyond 2am. Honest!

The Guardian have actually made my day with putting this picture online. YAY!

10. Traffic cones and shopping trolleys

It's what most people expect from students these days and with good reason. No word of a lie, I have honestly pushed my boyfriend around the students' union in a shopping trolley before. Which is a feat in itself, given how athletically challenged I am... Personally, I've never accessorised my outfit with a cone, but I have known several people to bring one home with them when finding partner for the evening fails. I suppose it makes a nice change to cwtch up to a plastic cone for comfort. All in all, it's what we're expected to do. Let's not let the masses down...

If that's all, I'm off to find a traffic cone to put on my head. God knows that you need to do something at least once in your lifetime, (especially if it's free),  and hey, lectures don't start until next Monday. I have another 48 hours of freedom before I am plunged back into this thing called 'work'. Urgh. Until then, enjoy the remaining days of Freshers' before I get all serious again with my 'degree'. Who knows - I might just not fail it if I accept that I am no longer a fresher.

Who wants to scrap Freshers' Week?

So, this weekend, I get the opportunity to move into my brand new accommodation, which I am grabbing with both hands. Don't get me wrong, I love being at home, but  I haven't adapted to the introduction of these things called 'rules' since they re entered my life in June.

Frankly, I can't wait to have my own space again, which I can abuse as much as I like.. well, within reason.  I can't wait to come home from a day on campus, fall onto a double bed and throw my clothes around the room, which will be cleaned up when my parents decide to pay an impromptu visit. (My mother is now internally cringing as she reads this - I joke, mother, I joke.) Apart from all the excitement of moving out and renewing my independence, there is one thing on my mind which is on the lips of all students, lecturers and fearful residents in the surrounding area - Fresher's Week.

Our Freshers' Week at Swansea - My flat and I are actually in this picture. :')

Ahh Fresher's Week. Try as you might to cover it up to your parents as socialising, gathering up bundles of independence and getting a head start on your lectures, the first week of university is indisputably defined by alcohol. New students will be moving into halls, getting lost around campus, skipping off to get their student ID cards for the library and generally trying to fit in which is, of course, all done under the shadow of a pint glass. (Well, it is if you're me.)  

But, as the cost of living and student fees rise, (unless, of course, you're Welsh and purely awesome), do university students really need a Fresher's week?

I'm not asking this question myself, which I would have to answer with a resounding YES. It's just that today, as I idly woke up at half past one and turned on my laptop alongside a bowl of coffee and a mug of cornflakes,(I kid you not), I came across an ongoing online debate via the Huffington Post, (don't ask why), entitled 'Does  Fresher's Week do more harm than good?'

Does Freshers week do more harm than good?

Now, I love a good debate, purely because I usually win, what with my persistent habit of not keeping quiet when I'm told to. I also love procrastinating, so reading the arguments wasn't much of a challenge, as I avoided tasks that my mother had entrust me with. They got done eventually, so no harm done.

Studies following the line of questioning above have already been done and show that students, like us, see freshers' week as a significant part of university life. I loved freshers' - it was one gigantic whirlwind of neon paint, alcohol, skeleton costumes, alcohol, silent discos, alcohol, campus parties and... well, alcohol. But it was as terrifying as it was fun. It was the week in which I was bombarded with more questions than I think I had been in my whole 18 years of being alive. Some mundane as "What A-levels did you do?", and some more scary ones like, "How will I feed myself without getting food poisoning?", or "What's the best thing I can pawn when my student loan runs out?"  

My second Freshers' week is starting in ten days and like many other students across the UK, I am thoroughly preparing myself for my second bout of freshers' flu, even though I'm a returning student. I'm saving up money to waste on sambuca shots and allowing my intolerance for alcohol to deteriorate even further by not drinking the stuff excessively. Basically, I can't wait.

From left to right - Me, Becky, Laura, Daisy, Amelia, Sophie, Chloe and Amie.
Freshers Week.  

This certainly wasn't the case this time last year. The thought of throwing myself at complete strangers with the intention of making new friends for life left me weak at the knees. Whenever someone mentioned Freshers' Week, my palms got sweaty and I felt like throwing up. As an incoming fresher, I was pretty crap to be perfectly honest. So I really can't wait to go out and redeem that status by enjoying freshers' week to its fullest.

The fact is that freshers' week is completely different to the rest of university life - it is pretty much the only time that everybody talks to everybody without any social hang ups or pretensions. Those individuals who are painfully shy - the type you are prepared to hit with a hammer to get them talking - blossom under the influence of alcohol which is good, because it means making friends is a hell of a lot easier with everyone so merry and not socially awkward. Something definitely changes when freshers' is over. The athletic types get together to have deep discussions about the pros and cons of protein powder. The middle class, Pippa Middleton alikes have battles about who owns the most horses and surnames. Those venturing in from London set out to find others from London, or keep on being friends with those they previously knew from London. The Welsh students take refuge in discussing nostalgic memories of coal and the sheep back at home. The Scots settle to drink everything is sight and feast on Haggis to feel at home. The Irish find solace in spending their pots of gold on shots and grimacing when someone asks them to say 'potato'. You're differences don't matter, however, when you're all dressed up as Smurfs or Skeletons.  

The presumptions and stigma surrounding freshers' week makes it out to be one gigantic piss up and while that is what most students get up to during their final week of being able to retain sanity before returning to lectures, to be told how unemployable you are and will be for the next three years.  However, that's not always the case. Sure, people end up having a pint... or five, but the reality is that you don't spend every waking second of Freshers' week drunk. You still need time to be hungover enough to throw yourself into a cold shower, watch your Friends boxset and thrust yourself back out into the wilderness of student events in the evenings. There are other events going on in Freshers' week, and while I didn't attend them, (I opted for a Freshers' Flu to last me until December), I hear they're pretty good for the student whose idea of fun doesn't involve lying on the floor in Oceana and asking the room to stop spinning. 

Without a doubt, students shouldn't be pressured into downing a bottle of Tesco Value Vodka, (and I wouldn't recommend it), which is why alternative events are going on every day throughout freshers' week. Ultimately, Fresher' is a vital time for students to settle into new environments, make friends and get to know a whole new city; something lots of incoming students have never experienced.  Let's face it, it's basically a piss up with structure, for the student who wants to be drunk and locked out at 4am, and the student who may not want to be involved with some of the more typical freshers' antics.

I answered the question myself and it turns out the 

72% of us don't think that Freshers' week does more harm than good. For me, whether Freshers' week lasts five days or two weeks, it is a wonderful and exhausting experience, where you are sure to be locked out, so drunk you forget your evening, hungover, have thrown up at least once, fallen over and woken up with mysterious bruises. You will end freshers' with a whole bunch of shiny, new friends, some which will end up taking part in your wedding day, and some you will awkwardly nod at when you see them in Tesco's in the future. When freshers' ends, you will be a tiny bit more independent than you were the week before, (well, you'd have survived your cooking, right?) and all set for the next night out. If having a few too many pints, shots or glasses of cheap wine is what it takes to get you there, is that such a bad thing? Uh.. No.

So give the newbie's a break and let them get themselves so drunk that they're still lying on the campus grounds the next morning, face down in a puddle of Smirnoff ice. Freshers' is one of the best times in your university life and everything is plain sailing from then on, (aside from the degree that has to be done. But no biggie.) Even if you like Justin Beiber, (you may not want to mention that, though), there is something for everyone to do and someone for you to do it with.