Every day offers something new for everyone. For babies, life is new. As children grow up, the mundanity of dressing themself and excitement of playing with others is new. Then, they grow into adults and learn how to perform in their new jobs and become functioning members of normal human society outside their familiar old teenage world. Life is full of new beginnings, all of which involve learning.
However, the most important things we have to learn in life cannot be taught to us- more often than not, they are learnt through trial and error (again, more often than not, a lot of error). Although doing things incorrectly over and over and over again often feels like you are digging yourself into a deep and never-ending hole that seems impossible to claw and climb you way out of.
That’s an experience I learnt about this year. I discovered that sometimes it’s not about simply going through one tough period and immediately having some symbolic and philosophical revelation before coming cleanly out the other side, ready to pass your newfound wisdom onto others. It’s about going through so many rough patches back-to-back that you think it can’t possibly get any harder, and that you’ll never dig yourself out of this bottomless pit that just seems to get deeper.
I learnt this during my first year of university, something I found terrifying. I was so scared to move away from my family. They were my source of comfort and reassurance in this scary and undetermined world. My parents got me through every difficult time in my life and always had the right advice or thing to say when I was upset.
So, moving away from them and into this unknown city with thousands of unknown people after coming from an isolated and rural part of Scotland where my closest neighbour was the cows in the field next door was bound to be a little bit terrifying.
Naturally, I started to meticulously look for societies and clubs to join to meet new people in the same drifting boat as me, just as many Freshers do. I already knew I wanted to join Brig from before I even left high school as writing is my passion and something that brings me a great deal of comfort and self-satisfaction- so that was a no-brainer.
I had also made a resolution to myself to be more fit and active when I moved to uni, which I later realised came in the form of sports as they subsequently filled the hole that leaving my horses behind had left, as they were well and truly what brought me the most comfort of all. Reading through the options of sports, it didn’t take long for me to land on the word ‘mountaineering’. Joining that club uncovered a passion that had rested dormant in my heart from years, invoking memories of going on holiday to Glencoe with my family.
The University of Stirling Mountaineering Club (USMC) has taught me things I didn’t know I needed to learn, mainly about myself. The sport and the people I have met in it have taught me how resilient and ambitious I truly am, and how far I’ll go to never back down from anything I think is right.
Starting a new sport, in a new place, with people miles ahead of me with years of experience after dreading PE in school was the most daunting thing I had ever done. Anyone who knew me a year ago would probably think I’m crazy for starting the sport of mountaineering- the only sport I had ever loved was my horses and I never even saw them as a sport. Suddenly, I fell deeply in love with hillwalking.
Even when my parents worried for my safety, even when I worried for my own, even when everything in my body and mind was telling me that this wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing, and even when I felt inadequate compared to every single other person in the club, I just kept pushing forwards, and upwards.
It was almost like there was some invisible rope tied to me and hillwalking, or me and the club, that I just couldn’t pull away from. I kept coming back after every knock down I faced in the sport- and that attitude bled into my everyday life. Whether it was my course, my sport, my writing, or something deeper in my personal life; I got back up, whenever I fell. No one can take that fact away from me.
Being a fresher is about doing everything every day for the first time. The first time you meet your lecturers, teachers, peers; the first time you make a recipe; the first night you spend alone in your accommodation, take the bus, go to a pub, have a drink, do an assignment, start a hobby, start a sport, begin your first adult relationship, and start your journey of figuring out who you are.
Life is scary, but it’s not impossible. Finding out who we are will be a long and difficult road – on top of having adult responsibilities with teenage and childlike brains— full of love, experiences, both good and bad, heartbreak, loss, happiness and joy. Every lesson is one being taught to us for a reason— all you have to do is trust yourself a little bit.
Featured image credit: Amelia Fryer
