Thursday, March 28Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

5 Things That Change Once You Start Second Year

It’s second year, and the first 6 weeks of University have passed by ever so quickly. However, it’s not like it was last year – this year counts. Here are the changes that you can either relate to if you’re a returner, or anticipate if you’re a fresher.

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1. No more living in halls on campus, you’re suddenly back in the real world.

And that’s when you realise how much you took internet and mobile signal for granted, because chances are you’ll have to wave your phone around your kitchen every time you want to send a text.
Not only that, you’ll now have to organise and set up accounts to pay for water and electricity, after having to learn how all these adult things are done. But once all that’s sorted, you can smugly look around your new home and feel that you’ve moved up in life from student halls.

 

2. You’re far more likely to participate in extra-curricular activities this year, like joining a society.
Last year (for most of us) let’s be honest, we strongly considered joining a society but that’s as far as our participation went…
Committee members of various societies have confirmed the fact that many people who join at the start of the year tend to be second year students who ‘never got around to it last year’.

 

3. You will go to the SU far less than last year for nights out
Now that you don’t live less than a minute away from the SU, it’s difficult to build up any sort of enthusiasm for an overpriced night out that will require you to walk all the way to campus and is oddly reminiscent of a school disco…
Plus, (now that you’re a whole year older), you’ll soon find that your previous unending energy and enthusiasm for nights out have suddenly vanished, and spending your Friday nights at home watching films seems far more appealing.

 

4. The library will become your second home.
If you didn’t already spend a fair amount of time in the library last year, then you definitely will this year. Not only is there more work, more reading, and very little time to complete everything in, but your marks actually count this year.
All of this means that you’ll find yourself spending more and more time at the library, until you reach the point that you’ve started spending most of your days there, occasionally even all-nighters when essays are due.
But don’t worry, until you reach the point where you can locate by memory any book for your course that you need, it’s not too bad…

 

5. The walk to campus everyday will suddenly make you appreciate how close everything was when you lived in halls.
Remember the days when you could just run back to your block for a quick nap between lectures? Well, (for most of us) those days are long gone, as unless you have a few hours between lectures, it’s often not worth the trip; by the time you got home, you’d have to start getting ready to set off again. Most of the time, your hour break will be spent wandering around campus between lectures or desperately stocking up on coffee to stay awake.