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Creative Writing student Sharmin Ahmed shares her experience transitioning to university

ÑÇÉ«ÊÓƵ always appeared daunting to me. It even sounds intimidating. The movies depict university as an ongoing party, with a few romance dramas scattered here and there. I can't say that part of me did not want university to be like this. Guilty confession. It was the same before starting secondary school; I was over-consuming High School Musical, so I expected to live the Gabriella experience for myself.

From year 8 onwards, there was one specific teacher who always said to me and my best friend: "Make sure you treasure high school, it flies." I just thought she was being overdramatic but one morning I woke up and I was in year 11. Then seconds later, I was in year 12. She was completely right; secondary school goes scarily quickly. And Covid-19 sped up the process even more so, before I knew it, I was filling in my UCAS application and selecting universities.

While it's an exciting time, it's quite scary. What scared me the most was knowing that my comfort people wouldn't be there anymore. We were all going to be venturing into our own paths of life. Considering I spent the entirety of secondary school and sixth form with the same people, it pained me to even think about not being around them every day. Growing up seems like a fun concept until you're actually on the cusp of it, wishing your childhood came back.

The summer before university was undeniably fun! I spent loads of time with my friends, creating memories we both hope to never forget. Amidst all the fun we were having, there was a sad undertone because I knew that our childhood was basically over. It was quite exciting knowing that going into university would give me the opportunity to make new friends. I've always been an extremely sociable person; I love talking to new people and having them in my life. Secondary school is like a bubble that only contains the people you're used to, then you realise that the next level is the real world. Like I mentioned, meeting new people generally excites me but in my head, I didn't quite grasp that I wasn't ditching my old friends for the new ones - I was just adding to the collection.

Admittedly, the first day was nerve-wracking. It felt exactly like the first day of secondary school; being the 'new' kid who knows nobody. But the comfort was that everyone was in the exact same boat. It's highly likely that almost everyone starting on their first day is just as nervous as you, so why not just go for it and embrace the awkwardness together. Thankfully, my class was quite small anyway so that kind of forced us to talk. The intimacy of a small class is massively comforting, because you don't feel like you're drowning in a sea of people. It wasn't overcomplicated; we literally just made small talk about anything. And the lecturer made us do an icebreaker where I had to reveal my undying love for the High School Musical trilogy.

You'll find that university is a guaranteed step up from secondary school. There's so much more freedom. Of course you should stay true to yourself always, but starting at a place where nobody knows the secondary school version of you means that you don't have to restrict yourself to act a certain way. So far, I've found that everyone pretty much gets on with their own life, so they don't have time to be micro-analysing yours. It was a scary chapter to enter, but every new phase in life will have that element of fear to it. Don't overthink it, life is way too short!