1 min read
BySasha Baker, Sasha Baker
'Don't assume you know exactly who you are and what you want out of your university experience straight away'
September 12, 2019 09:14If you're anything like me, you think you know everything there was to know about yourself at the ripe old age of eighteen, I began my history degree sure that I would find ‘my people’, with some very set ideas about who they would be.
Jewish Society never much appealed to me, as I felt estranged from the community during my teens. Instead, I instantly gravitated towards debating society, no doubt due to my frustration that I had no friends willing to talk about politics. The modules I chose were also political, offering scope for contentious debates in seminars.
It took most of first year for me to realise that I had settled down too soon and without enough thought. I never warmed to formal debating and began to tire of spending my evenings in the pub making impassioned arguments to an opponent playing devil’s advocate. I hadn’t known myself well enough to understand that I needed more out of my friendships.
Making these early mistakes helped me realise I was more than just a political animal. I loved writing and film and art, I needed friends who shared my sense of humour and would indulge me when I spoke about my mental health. Most of all, I needed to join a student society whose raison d’être was something I actually enjoyed doing.
I changed the way I socialised and conducted my degree in second year, orienting myself away from the cutthroat worlds of political history and debating. My new social life revolved around student journalism, which was a creative outlet, as well as a political one, and I found closer friendships based on real personal connections.
I also found myself increasingly interested in historical subjects that represented parts of my identity, particularly Jewish history and gender history. Discussions in the seminars I attended became less combative, which turned out to be a lot more interesting.
University offers a wealth of academic and personal choices, at once liberating and terrifying. The best advice I can give to freshers is not to assume you know exactly who you are and what you want out of your university experience straight away, and to leave your options open for self-discovery. I started university thinking I was more mature than many of my peers because I had a strong sense of self, but letting that go was what helped me grow up and feel more comfortable in my identity.
Sasha Baker recently graduated from UCL.