To All City University’s New Students

October 2, 2012
By: Carolina Are

A new academic year officially started today and, as editor of HerUni City University’s page, I want to employ my writing for a good cause and use this editor’s letter to welcome all City University’s new students and potential HerUni readers. 

University is a great moment in your life, a landmark, a huge change. No matter how fun Fresher’s Week might be, the prospect of a new year with brand new modules, scary lecturers, deadlines and possibly a new country with a different language might be overwhelming. With this letter is I hope to prove that it will all be fine… in the end.

When I started my BA Journalism course last year, my lecturers came up with an assignment on the first day. I was terrorised and afraid to fail, but I managed to get my act together and that first exercise went fine. A few weeks later, the first essay deadlines arrived and I was afraid I would have been crushed by the assignment overlap. In the end, that went fine too. When the exams came, I realised my year was about to be over, so I made a last effort and passed them with a result I’m really happy with.

Making the most out of university might look impossible at first, what with living alone, cooking, looking after your money and making sure your future doesn’t end up in the bin. However, no matter how cheesy and useless this might sound, everyone generally manages. All you have to do is live short-term: Just like you always manage to survive a huge hangover, you will manage to survive one task after the other. My first year was made of a lot of small steps that made a huge step in the end: It might not be a great achievement towards world peace, but hey… I survived my first year at University!

So here I am, a City University second-year, editor of a website I really like, writing from my laptop in the new flat I managed to find after a stressful three-month hunt. With a bit of luck, loads of fun, quite some hard work and (hopefully) HerUni’s advice, I hope you will all be able to look back and scream (like I did last year) : “I SURVIVED!” and think of what an amazing experience it has been.Good luck!

Carolina Are, HerUni City University’s editor