Your first year of university is nearly always a very formative phase of life. How difficult or easy it is to transition from high school can depend on the place you live, the support you have and the courses you choose.
Nina*, 19, completed her first year of uni in 2014. Yet to move out of home, she has learned more in her first year of uni than she did in her last few years of high school life. She suspects this has more to do with the people she met than the papers she chose to take.
Her first year of university has had its ups and downs. She failed her first law test. She feels great about being free to choose what she wears each day for the first time since primary school. She’s frustrated to be under her parents’ roof because it makes her feel like a child and she can’t smoke weed in her room.
Listen to this episode of First Things First, recorded and produced by Nik Jarvie-Waldrom, for a look into the world of a first year uni student, and a reminder of how challenging it can be to be faced with the beginning of the rest of your life.
*Nina’s name has been changed to protect her identity.
This content is brought to you with funding support from New Zealand On Air.
Photo: Meg Howie