Tanisha – my first day at Durham

Tanisha Rajan

First-day nerves

Going to university can be extremely daunting, and the first day is no exception. So to any nervous freshers, here’s how my first day was.

I moved to uni on the 26th of September 2021. I was incredibly nervous because it was the first time I would be living away from my family. I pulled up on Palace Green completely exhausted because I hadn’t had any sleep the night before because of nerves.

Frep’s made us feel at home

As soon as I stepped into college, the college Freps immediately made not only me but all the other nervous Freshers automatically feel at home. The Freps were incredibly helpful. They not only helped me carry my bags and showed me my new room but also talked about their own experience at Uni and made the transition far less scary for me.

Once I had finished unpacking I went to the Great Hall to collect items like my student ID, freshers pack and most importantly my gown. I obviously tried the gown on straight away! The collection spots for all these items were in different parts of the Castle so it gave me an opportunity to explore different parts of the college before Freshers week formally began.

After unpacking and collecting everything I needed, I went to explore Durham with my family. Durham is an incredibly scenic place and there are so many walks we could have done, but we ended up settling on a walk along the river around the Bailey. Then we went to look at some of the restaurants to get some lunch. At this point, I started feeling much more anxious.

That evening was the freshers’ mixer event. I had messaged a few people I met that day to ask if they wanted to meet up before going in because it can be scary going without seeing anyone you know. Meeting up with people beforehand meant that I had a little more confidence going in and spoke to a lot more people.

Overall, the first day was pretty exhausting but nowhere near as scary as I had thought it would be!

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Tanisha Rajan


Hi! I’m Tanisha and I’m a second year undergraduate student studying BSc Geography at Castle. In my free time you could probably find me painting, drawing, or crocheting - basically anything creative! In the coming year I’m hoping to get even more involved with college life as well as try out a few more clubs and societies.


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