Freshers' Week

OK, so it's been a while. Things happen, as things tend to do. Then boredom happened. Then more things happened. You get the idea. Point is, we are now third years. Third year is a mythical time for medics, when you are told you have free time and can actually do things with it except for complain about how you have no free time. More on that later. For now, freshers' week.

Most universities have a week or two of absolutely nothing, usually devoted to drinking and getting people settled in. Freshers' week in Cambridge means cramming all the start of term things in as quickly as possible so that the hope-destroying work can start as soon as possible. In first year, this means being vastly bewildered by everything going on at once and not having a clue what any of it means, then being disappointed once lectures start about three days in, while friends at other unis have been drinking constantly for what seems like a month. Second years have it much easier: having been through it and feeling pretty savvy, they are free to enjoy reunions and the main point of freshers' week: free stuff. They are also able to marvel at how tiny the freshers are. Third year, however, is different again. Having probably become someone important (or a nameless goon) in a number of societies, it is your job to make sure that every single fresher knows that they exist as soon as they've matriculated. As this follows about three months of doing exactly nothing, it comes as a bit of a shock, and everyone's triple-booked the whole week. Plus, of course, there's re-learning how to fend for yourself. This year, freshers are not just adorable and naive, they are annoyingly clueless and disease-ridden. As soon as lectures start, you miss being so small and having the same lectures you complained about in first year.

Ugh. I miss being at school.