First to Fourth: A Story of Stepping Stones Formed by Divine Teachings, Babba and a Bad Kebab

By Ellen Lundy

7.55am. August 18, 2022. Panic assumed one member in particular of the Lundy household on a brisk summer’s morning. A future that lay so close remained disclosed. The countdown was on but as the seconds weighed as heavy as hours, the mind was free to roam. What if I don’t get the grades? What if I am stuck at home while all my friend’s go to university? What if my whole life is contained in this one moment and I simply cease to exist if-

Ping. 

An update. A siren. Divine intervention? An update to my future plans had finally loaded. I, Ellen Lundy, would be progressing from judge’s houses (A-levels) to the live shows (University). Law with Spanish at Queen’s University Belfast, here she comes.

However, as I prepare to enter the finals (fourth year), I would be remiss to say that I did not, at times, find myself in the bottom two and preparing for a tearful exit.

Do you find yourself on the cusp of attending university? Have you finished your first or second year and fearful of what is to come? Or, are you simply jogging down memory lane as the uni years lay peacefully in the past?

Well, here are a few tips for all those facing the first-year fears, though I find these tips to be a good reminder for all in need of one;

• Fresher’s week – most overrated week of my life. And I once went on a girl’s holiday to Albufeira in 2024 when the entirety of Ireland seemed to have migrated to the Algarve. Fresher’s week can be amazing, but it can also be awful or simply just okay. Don’t expect to meet all your uni friends this week – simply try to have fun and meet as many people as possible. Repeat it with me now. Some things take time. The friendships that last 3 years will not be formed in a week. And, if a boy from Kerry shouts that he’ll love you forever if you buy him a wokamoley on the walk back from Babba, don’t believe him. It’ll save you a lot of money and heartache. 
• Classes – it will take time to adjust. University is a very different style of learning to school. If school is your parents teaching you how to ride a bike by starting with stabilisers, progressing to holding the seat and then gently pushing you off to allow you to peddle without aid, university is like your parents never teaching you how to ride a bike and instead pushing you and an adult racing bike onto a motorway and expecting you to keep up with cars going 70mph. It will feel like everyone else is thriving. Like they have started on the ground running while you’re still learning which feet your trainers go on. But I can promise you, everybody feels like their drowning and struggling to come up for air. So, look out for each other, and keep at it, because soon you will find your head above water. 
• Balance – be kind to yourself. First year for most students is only 5 or 10% of their entire degree. That is nothing in the grand scheme of overall grades. So, do what you need to do to gain an understanding of your course, decide if it’s for you or not and keep your grades at the level they need to be at. And spend the rest of first year having fun. Go to the union quiz on a Tuesday. Go hike cave hill with all eleven of your BT9 flatmates. Join a society and find a new hobby that you’d never thought of trying before. University is not all about the grades. The entire experience is the first stepping stone toward the adult you will one day become.

And I hate to tell you this, but you will make so many mistakes. You will say the wrong thing and hurt someone that you have grown to care about, you will do something so embarrassing that it will haunt you long past the wake and funeral of your university days and you will experience so much joy, rejection and life that the university years will feel simultaneously like a moment and a lifetime. 

My final piece of advice? Enjoy every second. Learn everything you can about yourself and others. Find enjoyment in learning. Start finding who you are and who you want to be. Because before you know it, you will be staring down the barrel of final year, waiting for the gun to go off and the race toward adulthood to begin.