Clubbing, drinking, sleeping in and missing your 9AMs are all part of the ‘university culture’.
While there is so much more to university, a good part of it for most people is based on those three things.
This can lead to those who don’t want to participate in this culture to feel like they are missing out.
Lucy, 20, shared her hate for university on her TikTok which gained over 200,000 views. In the video, she said: “Don’t get me wrong, I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to go to university. I just actually think it was the worst decision of my life.
“The whole uni culture is just not for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love going out sometimes. I do not however like going out f*cking five times a week, getting sh*tfaced […] I feel like a complete outsider all the f*cking time.”
One comment said: “I feel the exact same way, I constantly feel like I don’t fit in with the uni vibe and the student culture because I don’t like going out all the time.”
A reply to that comment said: “I feel completely the same, much prefer staying in and feels like I’m doing uni completely wrong!”
Speaking to Lucy, she said: “I had no idea [that others felt this way] because at the start, at like freshers, etcetera, when you are supposed to be having the most fun, I literally hated it.
“From my comment section loads of people from my course who I hadn’t spoken to before were also saying how they hated it and the uni culture.
“I think it was mainly due to my living situation because me and my flatmates just didn’t click like that, they weren’t really my people.
“It’s not what I thought it would be at all, I love to go out and drink but not at the rate these people do it.
“It’s a bit better now I’ve found my people like girls who like to dress up and go for dinner and bars instead of a sweaty club.”
Now, in my final semester at university, I know how it feels to miss out greatly on the ‘university culture’ and the experience of it all.
The thing is, there is no wrong way to go about your university experience, because it is YOUR experience. Everyone’s time at university is completely unique and different.
While there may be a sense of pressure to go out and drink night after night, weekend after weekend, there is absolutely no need to.
With the pandemic greatly affecting the first year or so of my time at the university as well as the decision to stay home and commute 45 minutes to campus, my university experience has been greatly different to most of those around me.
I know how it feels to feel isolated from those around me because I wasn’t living in the city, nor was I going to Fubar every Wednesday night.
However, I have never felt like I was missing out because it simply wasn’t what I was wanting to do.
There is so much more to university that drinking and clubbing and there are many ways to meet people who are also wanting to do more than just this.
The easiest way to meet people may be obvious but attending lectures and seminars will give you access to meet people on your course. These will be people you will share at least one common interest in and have something to start a conversation over.
Joining a club or society should be a number one priority. I have met most, if not all, of my friends through joining a society, this society. Without Brig, my university experience would have been completely different, and I would probably feel isolated, especially in this final semester.
While there are many alcohol-related socials (which you absolutely don’t need to drink at to attend), there has also been a commitment to sober socials also such as coffee shop crawls.
And they great thing about joining a club or society is that there are so many, so you are bound to find something that fits your interests or hobbies.
So, don’t cave to ‘university culture’, university is what you make of it. You are only missing out if that’s the university experience that you want to have.
Feature image credit: Pexels
Lifestyle Editor • Fourth year Journalism student
