Freshers week at Oxford
Dec 01 '00
I spent four of the best years of my life at Oxford, unfortunately I did not keep a journal at the time. It is more than 13 years since the events described here took place.
When the thin letter from the University Offices, Oxford, arrived in the mail a few weeks after all the other universities had responded, I assumed it would be a rejection letter. “We regret to inform you that as you have not received the necessary grades for admittance, we are not able to offer you a place at Oxford”. Having braced myself for disappointment, the rush of elation was all the more overwhelming when I read the first few words - ”We are pleased to offer you...”.
And so it was that I found myself trudging from the railway station to New College, Oxford, on a rainy evening in early October, 13 years ago. The way from the railway station to the town center is not a very attractive one, passing by auto-dealerships and warehouses rather than majestic 700 year old colleges with gothic spires. But that, and the rain, did not matter to me – I was at the beginning of a 4 year high!
New College is “new” because it is only 600+ years old, as opposed to 700 years old like the first colleges at Oxford. It is in fact one of the older of the 30 odd colleges that make up the entity known as the University of Oxford. It is also one of the largest of the colleges, and one of its claims to fame is that a large part of the ancient city walls of Oxford lies within the grounds of New College.
Us “freshers” arrived a week before the start of term to familiarize ourselves with the college and university. Freshers week was a wild time of making friends, attending parties, joining clubs, finding out where we were supposed to go for lectures, tutorials, food, etc. I felt so important, being in the same room as professors who had written acclaimed books or whose research was changing the world. At the same time, I was intimidated by the fact that everyone in the room was either a top academic or a top student. For the first time, I was in a room full of people who were more articulate, more confident, and far more accomplished than me. However, a couple of beers loosened my tongue enough for me to muster the courage to join in the conversations on topics I had no idea about, and make a fool of myself!
One night early in fresher’s week, some of my new friends went with me for a pub crawl. I was the only one who was above 18 (the legal drinking age in England), but I was the only one that the bartender would not serve (I must have looked 15!). My new friends left their drinks on the counter, told the bartender that if he wouldn’t serve me, then they wouldn’t be served either, and we all left. That was when I first felt that I “belonged”.
For one week, we had all the pleasures of adulthood with none of the responsibilities. We staggered from party to party, making new friends along the way, reveling in the fact that there was no curfew, no one to answer to, and no work to hand in or exams to prepare for. We were invited to join clubs such as “The Dangerous Sports Club”, which started the bungee jumping craze, the Oxford Union (for hacks and wannabe politicians), even the Tiddlywinks club!
It was heaven, freshers week was. And then, reality hit. We had one on one tutorials with our very experienced and very accomplished professors twice a week. It is not a pretty sight going in to a tutorial, unprepared and with a hangover, and being grilled by someone who would rather be inventing the next generation of jet engines than teaching 1st year thermodynamics to a bunch of slackers. I had been foolish enough to join too many clubs, including the rowing club which meant getting up at 5.30 in the morning 5 times a week to go for practice on the river. Friends made in freshers week became strangers as cliques formed according to work and leisure activities. We started worrying about whether we would survive the 1st year exams. Most of us ran out of money pretty quick when the free partying was over. We had to do boring stuff like laundry (well, some of us did – but I’m sure there were people who didn’t do any laundry for 8 weeks!). We started to grow up.
Over the next four years, I never ceased to be amazed at my luck in getting to spend this part of my life in this beautiful place, surrounded by more than 700 years of knowledge oozing from every wall and spire. As I cycled to and from lectures, as I saw the sun setting over the Radcliffe camera or Christchurch meadows, as I enjoyed a few pints at the Kings Arms or lazily punting down the Cherwell with a group of friends, I knew I had a charmed life.
If you are currently in college, or about to go – make the most of it! Whether you are in college for 3 years or 4, the time passes too quickly and soon it is all a hazy memory. Don’t hesitate to do whatever interests you, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with getting better grades. College is when you have a chance to learn who YOU are and what YOU want in life.
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Member: Dominic Lim
Location: World citizen (in an ideal world)
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