I was once told I have the energy of an old and wise tree. As such, allow me to offer some past wisdom to present freshers, straight from the Varsity archives.

Interestingly, guiding freshers has been a ritual for as long as freshers themselves have existed. Varsity’s 2004 Fresher’s Guide modestly claims: “you have to realise that all the guides you have received are, to put it simply, full of lies”. They set out to offer, as an alternative, “the only guide to Freshers’ week you will need”.

The 2004 Fresher’s issue went on giving freshers insightful advice about what to bring: “Forget the reading list, forget the books, forget your clothes. Alcohol is by far the most important thing to bring to Cambridge.” Helpfully, the article also mentions that “coffee is another important thing to bring, along with cigarettes. If you don’t […] you will look out of place with your clean teeth and calm demeanour”.

Guidance to new students also covers two of the fresher’s weak staples, which make for satisfying alliterations: the fresher’s fair and the fresher’s flu. The former is described in 2002 as “the domain of lollipops, pens, and other tacky shit”. The latter is mentioned in 2003, reassuring audiences that despite the vast numbers affected there was still hope: “It seems the time for painting plague crosses on our doors has not arrived yet”.

“[T]he domain of lollipops, pens, and other tacky shit”

Despite all the humorous practical guidance, the most useful is that which touches on how it feels to be a fresher: 2004 described fresher’s week as “a potage of trepidation, excitement and profound boredom”. The article urges to take some pressure off fresher’s week, reminding the reader that they have multiple years ahead of them to make friends and drunken mistakes.

From all my research, it seems the wiser words come from the intuition of a fresher herself. In 2002, Judith writes “I have to believe that underneath all the neuroses that go with being a fresher is the knowledge that, however nervous I may be feeling, there are others who are just as nervous as I am”.

For the archivists and freshers of the future, let this be my contribution to the fresher’s advice pile. At the core of the fresher experience, and its dedicated week, lies a fascinating paradox: it can be a very alienating and lonely time, despite being an inherently collective experience. Acknowledging the bittersweetness and vulnerability that comes with being a fresher is the first step in creating this new exciting and terrifying life for yourself.