First Year Blues: A Short Story on Choosing Your Friends & Your Clothes

First year of law school.

Not easy.

But definitely not as intimidating as you may think.

For me, what worried me most wasn't just law school being intimidating and hard. It was saying goodbye to my comfortable high school routines, saying goodbye to wearing a uniform, and most unfortunately, saying goodbye to my two best friends who, both coincidentally, moved across the globe for uni. Yeah. I know. To me at the time, it was definitely the worst thing that could possibly happen going into Uni.

I was always someone who enjoyed the convenience of uniform. Summer - put on summer dress, white socks, brown shoes, and if I remembered, a ribbon in my hair.

Winter - a little more complicated… put on my white shirt, my tie, my stockings and my skirt. If it was cold, my jumper and blazer too. Six years of wearing the same uniform allowed me to never have to stress about outfits in the morning.

Uni just wasn't the same. I remember waking up Monday morning for my first ever Crim lecture. 9am. Yeah...that was already 30 minutes later than high school starting. Should be easy right? NO. Picking an outfit for my first day at uni was actually a chore! I broke a sweat trying on the five jumpers and four (very much the same) pairs of leggings. Thank goodness I had my favourite pair of shoes at the time, otherwise the shoe choosing process could have left me missing my first lecture.

Three years down the track, I can definitely see how I was making a massive deal over a first world problem. But everything feels like a big deal in First Year.

So to anyone starting their first year, I just want to say it’s normal to panic and stress over things you have never worried about before, and it’s normal to not always be on top of everything. Just remember, first year is the best year to learn how uni life differs from high school and to start some new routines. Clearly, I could have laid the outfit out the night before, but being the last minute person I am- I didn’t.

Friends.

A lot of the time, our uni experience is very much dependent on the friends we have and the people we meet. Going into uni while my two best friends across the world, definitely made me feel like I "had no friends”. Each time I spoke to someone in a lecture and they told me “I’m hanging with my high friends friends tonight, we’re going out for a few drinks!” I couldn't help but wonder how much easier and better life would be if I had my best friends.

I would message them and tell them how much I missed them, and consequently start missing high school and my comfort circle. As the year went on, I realised, the only thing stopping me from meeting new people was my constant wish for my best friends to be here by my side.

I learnt the importance of taking myself out of my own shell and stepping out into a new world where new people and opportunities are not as daunting as my mind makes it out to be. I realised there were people in similar positions as me and I wasn't alone in feeling lonely and awkward.

There is always someone out there that will be your best friend, someone you will connect with, and someone you will go through uni with.

I just needed to find them, just like I had to find my best friends back in high school.

Written by Dian Liu (Co-founder)