Societies

In Welcome Week I had scoped out the Snowsports Society because I had always skied with my family before university and thought it might be a good way to make friends outside of my housemates. I thought I would take a risk and book on the annual ski trip without knowing anyone that was going. It turns out lots of people did the same thing and I spent the trip skiing and après skiing with a new group of mates. I went on the trip every year and would spend the week skiing and partying in the mountains with my friends and making some unforgettable memories.

In my third year, I joined County College Netball Club. I trained and played with some of the loveliest girls I’ve ever met and went on themed weekly socials where we could dress up and head to Sugarhouse for the night. I went from being a St Trinian to a mermaid to a dolphin trainer and everything in between! It was some of the most fun I’ve had at university and a great way to let off some of the stress of the third year.

Roses

Although I never participated in Roses I went to watch it every year, with my first and third Roses taking place in York and my second in Lancaster. When Roses was in York, myself and my housemates made the trip to support some of our friends in their events.

Although sleeping on lecture theatre floors wasn’t the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, it was totally worth it for an amazing weekend filled with plenty of wins. The best of the three years was experiencing a home win in Lancaster. It was one of the sunniest weekends we had for a while and that made watching Lancaster lift the Roses trophy even better. To read more about Roses, check out Tom's blog about Roses 2019.

My course

Although perhaps one of the most challenging parts of university for me, my course was the most rewarding (after all, that’s what we’re all here for). In my second year I made some friends on my course and we all ended up being really close, helping each other out when we were struggling, going on nights out, and even taking group trips to Preston for a Nando's fix.

When writing my dissertation in my third year, it felt like the library was my new home and the long hours took their toll. However, I would do it all again after the feeling the pride and relief of handing in my dissertation. Being able to share that with my course mates was a great feeling and the boost we needed before final exams. Unfortunately, this did mean two solid months of revision and hard work. But again, it was all worth it for the feeling of seeing the results. By what felt like some kind of miracle we had achieved the grades we wanted and celebrated the Lancaster way by heading out to Sugarhouse.

Extravs

As much fun as I had throughout the years at Lancaster, exams still came around and every year one of the things that kept me going was the anticipation of the next event on the social calendar- EXTRAVS.

In my first and third year my housemates and I did the impossible and managed to get tickets to three extravs, all with different themes. In first year this was Fylde (Fylde-chella), County (Countiki) and Cartmel (The Great Gatsby) and in third year, Grizedale (End of the World), County (Under the Sea) and Furness (Grease).

Extravs are the parties thrown by each college at the end of the year. These were easily my favourite events of university because I was surrounded by so many of the friends from across the colleges and had the relief of completing my exams, and in my final year, the achievement of finishing university!