Looking back at first year: Term-1

Year 1 of University – check!

As my first year of university comes to an end, now is a great time to sit back and reflect over the amazing year that has gone by. Complete with its highs and lows and laughs and tears and high fives and pats on the back, it certainly has been one eventful year! Let’s start this journey of reflection right from the start, i.e., Term 1. Actually let’s go even further back to when I received an offer from Warwick! 

So yes, there I was, a year ago, sitting on my desk back in India, studying for my chemistry practical experiments that were going to be tested the next day, when I heard a notification buzz on my phone. Desperately wanting to be distracted so as to take a break ;), I picked my phone up and immediately shouted in joy! I had received a conditional offer from Warwick! A blink of an eye later, I’m sitting on my desk in my room in Claycroft typing this essay, looking back on my first year that’s just finished! Surreal isn’t it!

1st October, 2021. The day I embarked on my first solo trip. An international flight from Delhi, India, to London, United Kingdom, which was 9 and a half hours long! Navigating the airport and its procedures were surprisingly easier than I thought. All I remember from the flight is that I slept as soon as I boarded it because it was 3 in the morning and my glorious sleep was broken by a flight attendant waking me up as we were about to land! My arrival into this amazing country was greeted by a not so amazing 3 hour immigration queue… This is exactly where I attended my first tutor meeting! I joined via Microsoft Teams and gave birth to a running joke between my tutor group that is still mentioned today! (smiley)

Since India was an Amber list country, I had to quarantine for 10 days, which I did in my uncle’s house in Cardiff, Wales. This meant that I ended up missing freshers week and the first 2 weeks of term! I was finally on campus after quarantining and all I could say was WOW! I had seen the campus before through a virtual tour but it wasn’t even close to our campus’ true beauty. After doing the usual stuff such as getting lost on campus and getting locked out of my accommodation, I started attending the online lectures and meetings. Since Covid was very much prevalent at that time, we were having all our lectures and teaching content online with the only in person interaction being with our tutor groups once a week. Looking back, all of Term-1 seems like a huge blur. Primarily due to the fact that most of it was spent stuck in my room alone watching lectures and (mostly) Netflix. The tutor meetings each week were honestly the only anchors helping me keep track of time! But nonetheless, I eventually started to make friends through interactions on the Engineering group chats on Whatsapp and Discord. I started to sign up to various societies such as the Engineering, Debating, Chess, Warwick India Forum, Badminton, Squash, and the Islamic Society. Sessions at these societies turned out to be the only things I used to look forward to in my day! The group activities of ES192 such as the Engine Strip lab and the Compressor Disassembly helped me meet and work with more of my course mates and were really fun! Then came the most dreadful week of term! The infamous week-10. With the ES196 Beam Bending Lab report and the ES192 Design Portfolio deadlines in the same week, the last week of term was turning out to be a nightmare! However, with the help of a few all-nighters and essential support from a few good friends, we had finally done it, we had survived the first term of uni! 

That’s everything I could think of about my experience of Term-1! I will be posting my reflections on the other terms soon so look out for them. Until then, thanks for reading and feel free to ask me any questions in the comments below!