High School to University What You Can (and Can’t!) Prepare For.

by Amy RIach

As the Easter holidays pass us by, high schoolers are enjoying the end of Term 1, and Uni students are marking the first mid-semester break of 2023. And for those of us who went from an Area School in Oxford to a University mid-city, the term to semester transition is both remarkably familiar, and strangely new.

Being in Yr 13, and trying to decide on a career, a degree, and a new place to live all in one fell swoop, is a kind of pressure and excitement unique to leaving high school for the first time. It’s also one of the very first steps towards adulthood, and at first glance, being an adult seems like a whole lot of paperwork. Everything and everybody requires a form, a signature, an email, a followup survey. I wrote out about a million applications, convinced teachers to provide references, filled in every form going, and for all my preparations, I felt nothing but wildly unprepared. The truth is, I was wildly unprepared. But the new year will roll around anyway, move-in day will arrive, and no matter how prepared you are for the change, it will happen regardless. There is a limit to how ready you can ever really be, and if I’d waited to get all my ducks in a row, I would never have crossed the street. Sometimes, you just have to gather up what you’ve got and make a run for it.

The paperwork sticks around, and by all accounts will continue to do so for years to come. The nerves stay for a while too, especially when not a single step in your new routine is, well, routine. But the excitement doesn’t really fade either. With more responsibility comes more freedom, and it is you and only you who is responsible for choosing where and how to spend the day. For some people that sounds like a lot of pressure, for others it’s nothing but exciting, and for most of us, it’s a real mixture of both. There is no one marking you absent in lectures, no one chasing you for an essay at the deadline. You are the only person accountable for the assessments you sit and the classes you take, and in some ways, Uni fails to resemble High School at all. But if the weather is terrible, and you don’t want to get out of bed and over to campus, you don’t have to.

You can watch the livestream lectures and take notes in your own room instead. You can arrange your own timetable, and choose where you want to be and when you want to be there. Sometimes you will get it wrong, and that’s okay too. Everyone is in the same boat, and everyone is making it up as they go along.

At 18, you’re an adult in a whole lot of ways. And you’re still a kid in many others. It’s okay if you feel like you’re bad at ‘adulting’. You’re still learning how. It’s okay if you failed one exam, or missed the grade on that essay, or don’t know what your own tax bracket is. The point is you sat the exam, you finished the essay, you aced that interview and got the job. Remember that this is all still new, and you're allowed to be a beginner.

Sometimes, being an adult is just treating yourself like an overtired toddler. Sometimes ice cream stops you from wanting to cry, and you fall asleep before the end of the movie because honestly, you just needed a nap. Sometimes, the Residence Hall chefs add frozen bananas to the ice in chocolate milk, because like a fussy 3yr old, none of you are really eating enough fruit. And sometimes participation awards recognise that you really tried, and just passing is more than enough. Whether it is built on A’s or on C’s, you will get the same degree, and you will take up the same opportunities.

You’re allowed to do things casually, and you’re allowed to be bad at them. You can join a Zumba class, drink wine beforehand, and dance in the back of the class with your best friends. You never have to go again, (I didn’t!). But try things, brand new things, even if you’re terrible and you only ever try it once.

Let yourself enjoy things you didn’t think you’d even try.

Oxford Area School Presents:

By Paul Johnson