What to do when you hate your first year of university

It wouldn’t have come as such a surprise if I hated studying.

But I loved school. And from everything I was told, university was supposed to be even more fun: I’d get to study the subjects I loved and drop those I didn’t, go to cool parties and maybe even meet my soulmate.

On the first week, I sat next to a fellow student in a big lecture hall, exchanged pleasantries and never saw them again. Then the same thing happened in the next lecture. The smaller tutorial classes were better, but I still felt disconnected and disillusioned at how impersonal everything was. I missed seeing the same people every day and having a teacher who knew and cared about us all.

It didn’t help that my best friends had all moved interstate to pursue their degrees. I was the only one in our tight-knit highschool group who had chosen to stay in Perth, so while I recognised friendly faces across campus, I had to start building friendships again. I was a small fish entering a big pond … by myself.

Truthfully, I hated my first year. I went from excelling in my favourite subjects in school to struggling to figure out what I was doing wrong. I considered deferring for a year to figure things out. Looking back, that was probably a good option, and one that several of my friends ended up taking and, later, swearing by.

But as my second year rolled around, I changed my approach. I still wanted to do well in my classes, and as time passed, I got a better understanding of what I needed to do to succeed. But I also focused more of my energy on things outside the classroom.

I’d dabbled in a few of the university’s clubs and societies in my first year, but found them to be superficial and uninspiring. By my second year, I’d found more niche clubs and volunteer opportunities that actually excited me.

One of these was an investment club recommended to me by a friend – and, I’ll admit, love interest – I met at a picnic after class. While investing was never something I thought I’d be interested in, I joined the committee (it’s always better to aim for committee positions than to simply sign up as a member because you’ll get to be more involved) and thrived in the club’s economics team. Within a year, what I think was mostly my enthusiasm, got me promoted to the club’s co-president, overseeing a $20,000 portfolio of equities managed by students.