Fresher's Week

As its now March, procrastination has well and truly set in and I’ve decided, finally, to put my last ever fresher’s week into words. This year I came over to Ormskirk a week earlier than classes began to help out with the Christian Union’s welcome week. I am the current Vice-President of the CU and over the past couple of months we have been busy organising events for the new freshers to help them settle in.

Monday

After a quick flight across the water, I got off the plane, ran to the toilets and was collected from the airport by my lovely friends and my final year of university began. I dropped my tiny suitcase at my uni house and headed on a twenty-minute walk to uni.

The first event of the week was a Pop-Up Café; our café consisted of donuts, cookies, tea, coffee and hot chocolate that we gave out for free to fresh faced university students who passed by our stall that thriving Monday morning. I arrived as the team were halfway through chatting, passing out flyers and welcoming students with a fresh cup of their preferred beverage. I felt so proud to belong to such a community when I arrived and was eager to get into the week of events we had ahead of us.

I had just got off the plane and still hadn’t allowed my body to re-adjust and turn on university/socialising mode. As I stepped up to chat to passers-by, I froze and found myself struggling to engage in conversation. I decided that the most productive thing I could do was make the drinks while others chatted. When it reached 2pm we packed up our gazebo, brand new pump flasks and extra bits and bobs and headed to a committee meeting, a quick dinner and then off to our Christian Union fresher’s social.

No rest for the wicked eh??

After taking on board training we had received from UCCF at Forum we arranged our meeting room in the most welcoming way we could; set up board games, a Wii, tea, coffee with freshly baked goods, prayed and welcomed our first fresher.

The response we received from the evening was rather heart-warming. We were thoroughly encouraged by the people who came along and began to build relationships. I headed home after a long day, finally ate and got myself to bed ready for tomorrow.

Tuesday

My alarm went off at 7am and I got ready for the first group of committee members to arrive at my house. After sorting through all our stuff, we managed to get rid of extra baggage to ease our journey and head to uni. Unfortunately, we fell victim to Storm Helen, however, we wouldn’t let her stop us and set up our café indoors. Again, we were ‘sold out’ of all our free donuts and cookies and had another successful day that involved many conversations and left with a much smaller stack of flyers.

I finished some of my unpacking, went for my first food shop of the academic year and made my dinner, (I 100% have forgotten how much effort it is to be an adult) and then headed to bed for a big, long sleep.

Wednesday

Every year, like most universities, Edge Hill holds a fresher’s fair which gives students the opportunity to explore more of what the uni has to offer as well as a closer look into the societies. After setting up a candyfloss machine, flyers, church information booklets and sign-up sheets, EHCU were all ready for Fresher Fair 2018.

This is an event I truly struggled with; as someone who suffers from anxiety, I tortured myself all of Tuesday night and my anxiety got the better of me at even the thought of having to attend. As a result, on Wednesday morning, I suffered from a panic attack and thought it was best to protect my health rather than force myself to attend. Dealing with anxiety is just something I have to try and manage, however a week like fresher’s week is a massive trigger and that’s when I have to look after myself.

During the midst of all this CU excitement and Freshers buzz, the reality of final year hit when I went to attend my BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Welcome Back meeting! It was great seeing so many people from my course again but listening to the sheer amount of work this year is going to be, I’d just rather not talk about it! LOL!

Thursday

Thursday brought round the first CU Central of the year! I had just got back from an exciting trip to Knowsley Safari Park with my housemates and then I was off to CU. We welcomed back freshers, second and third years to enjoy some pizza and live music! As part of my course for this year I will be performing in the premiere of the new musical “Angry Birds” (not the game), and as part of my research for this project I was advised to attend “Stealing Sheep Suffragette Tribute”, which took place across campus. This ended my Thursday wonderfully and I headed back to the house for another long sleep, and enjoyed a day off on Friday!

Saturday

Fresher’s week continued into the weekend; we gathered in the Hub bright and early, hopped into cars and a mini bus and set off on a 30-minute journey down the road to Southport. We began our trip with a drink and toilet stop at McDonalds before heading to a big open field to play some games. We split into two teams and thoroughly enjoyed a rather competitive game of rounders. I introduced the “Linky Arm” game at the end of last semester, so it was requested along with “Splat” and a quick game of “Capture the Flag”. I enjoy these games the most when I’m leading them; I tend to just run and scream when I’m not.

After games, we headed to my favourite stop of the day, Fish and Chips! This was most definitely well-earned after all that fun and exercising in the freezing cold! The only slight issue we had whilst munching on our warm chips was the sheer amount of pigeons that we attracted; especially when rogue CU members fed them their chips! Following our pigeon invasion, we headed for a lovely stroll along the pier where we got the first group picture of the year!

Sunday

This Sunday brought round our first “Church Search” of the year. We set up early in the morning and invited representatives from local churches to share a bit about who they are alongside student representatives, as well as providing breakfast to make those early starts a little bit easier. I am so grateful that I have found and belong to such a loving church that has been so influential for my faith while living so far from home. I therefore understand the importance of finding a church at university. We continued this for three weeks and will continually provide support throughout the year. We, as a CU, are blessed to have great relationships with churches, both local and further afield, who are unwavering in their generosity.

This was my last ever fresher’s week and what a wonderful one to end on, it was a very encouraging week and a great way to start the year!