One of the beauties of University is the way clubs and societies present near limitless opportunities to get involved with activity where no such opportunity previously existed. A bonus is that these are often hugely cheaper than doing that activity through another means and are therefore one way to extract the most from your time.
It’s the second week of my third and final year at University, and experience has taught me that this initial period is a great time to try out new experiences, meet some awesome people and generally have a blast! This past week alone has seen me hiking, skiing, gorge walking, cliff jumping, slack-lining, scuba diving and over the next two days I will be rock-climbing and white-water kayaking too! I recognise that I am extremely lucky to go to Aberystwyth University, where such activities are so accessible, but other universities will also have a wide range of epic societies, whatever your interests may be! Whether you are into dancing, knitting, bird-watching or even Nerf Guns, the opportunity is there for you! If it’s not, you can go ahead and create a society yourself. Generally all you need is a number of other students who would be interested in joining you!
Don’t be worried that getting involved in societies will mean sacrificing ‘normal’ student activities like epic parties or clubbing…(or studying!) In fact, the opposite may be true, joining a society will open up a network of loads of people with the same interests. Also, from my experience the societies know how to let their hair down in the evenings and have great socials! To make time for what you want to do, the key is a little time management and to prioritise what is most important to you: while you may not have time to keep up with all your TV shows, or sleep in until 12 every day, I guarantee you will be a lot better off! Also, I guess the philosophy “Work hard, play hard” is kinda relevant here!
So, to anyone at University now, or going to University at some point, get involved, try something new, take your opportunities and I guarantee, your time will be enriched as a result!