"There'll be no fun as everyone will be working."
That is everybody's worry.
I thought, what if everyone hates spending time together?
What if we're all just in our rooms for an entire year?
Not talking, not eating together?
But it is, like, the complete opposite.
I was genuinely really surprised when I came here and found that people actually
do still love to go out.
I think the most important thing has been having an open mind because
you're more likely to go for experiences,
you're more willing to meet people
and make the most of the experience that you actually have here.
I found with a humanities degree
there's less fixed contact hours.
MMLL [Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics] has quite a few because of language classes, but
I've found that I can get involved in things.
I've got quite involved with the student theatre scene here, which is amazing.
There's so much to do and something for everyone.
So in my spare time I do a lot of society things, so with the Islamic Society,
also sports,
and also things within my JCR [Junior Combination Room], so in my college.
And there's so much time to do what you enjoy,
as long as you balance it with your work and separate the time
well, then there's plenty of time to enjoy the city,
enjoy your time with friends,
the college and all the beautiful places.
At the end of the day,
Cambridge is still a university.
There are still people going out clubbing and going to restaurants
and bingeing Netflix.
You can still do all of those things.
You just have to work a little bit harder when you're not doing those things,
but you can definitely have a balance, 100%.
You just need to carve out that time in your own timetable.
I think that's the worry about uni, it's that you are in charge of everything you're doing.
Being someone who wasn't too on top of my studies myself as a student,
I was worried about that imposter feeling.
But no everyone, seriously, everyone loves to have a great time.
Of course you're going to have people that just want
to keep themselves to themselves, which is understandable.
But you also have a lot of people who will be like, "Yeah, let's go out!"
on like a Monday night.
Money.
So that's definitely a big one.
Even now, because coming from a lower income family
with not as much money as other people here
and just figuring out also how to manage money by yourself for the first time ever.
And I think the Cambridge Bursary is massive at helping
sort of rectify that difference in income and it means that people have
because it just means that there's a bit less to worry about
because you've got this sort of safety net almost and this extra bit of money
that really helps you be able to do everything that everyone else is doing.
Because I think my worry was that though I'd have enough money to live,
I wouldn't be able to spend as much on going out and enjoying myself.
And I think just having that extra bit of money provided by the uni
means that I can do the things I want to do
and money isn't a restriction in the same way.
There won't be many other trans people in Cambridge.
That's definitely a fair enough worry to have.
A lot of the things that I saw of outreach and the traditional image
that you have of Cambridge doesn't really include trans people,
but there's many of us here
in all colleges and all courses.
I found a very strong group of transgender friends in Cambridge,
and there's also a lot of student
support available on a college level with your college LGBT officer.
Also with the LGBT Student Union campaign,
we have a designated trans and non-binary representative.
So yeah, you're really not alone
in that regard, even when it seems like you might be.
Are adjustments made
for people with long term illness?
So I think that's also a big thing for me.
As someone with type 1 diabetes,
I came here and I was like, I don't know what support is going to be like.
You're kind of, you go through GCSEs and your A-levels
having like a big support network and they kind of know you very well.
And to go to university where you don't have, like,
your home healthcare and your family there to support you,
you're a bit worried about it.
But, before you get in,
or you come here, in your first year, you have a meeting with the college nurse.
You talk about any worries that you have.
You meet with the Disability Resource Centre,
and you tell them "hey, look, I think that I could do with extra time or rest breaks".
You just give them
a letter from your doctor saying, yeah, this is what this person has.
It would be reasonable to ask for this.
And yeah, the support honestly is really, really great from these people.
I was really surprised when I came here,
but yeah, they're really lovely about it.
Will I fit in?
Ooh.
Hmph.
A tricky one.
In my first year,
I was guilty of feeling out of place
in Freshers' Week.
I was having a bit of imposter syndrome because, I mean, you don't know anyone.
You come here and you've never met
all of these people and they're all from different backgrounds
and they all have different, like, interests.
I think this is the case, though, with anything that you start,
be it a new school, any university or a job.
I've always been a little bit of the odd one out wherever I've been,
and I really didn't want to follow me to uni.
But the thing about uni is it is such a diverse group of people.
There are so many different courses at every uni,
there are so many different people with different interests
and there's so many clubs and societies where everyone has niche, unique
interests and things about themselves that are different to everyone else.
And that means that you can always fit in wherever you are.
I have definitely found people here that are exactly like me,
and I've definitely found people who literally could not be more unlike me.
After, like, my first night of just being a little bit bewildered, I found some
such nice people and, like,
I'd say, friends for life, that are just like me.
And I just love so much.
And that imposter syndrome has faded
so much because of these people that I've met
who I didn't really think that I'd meet, because in my head I was like, Cambridge,
oh my gosh, everyone like just wants to study.
But that's not the case.
You find people that make you feel at home, which
is really great.