Why I love Norwich

I think part of the reason why I was so excited to travel to Norwich is because it was there that I've really become fully myself. I'm lying wide awake thinking about exactly what's happened this past year, and I just need to write it down to let it out.

This time last year, I was in the middle of Sherwood Forest in Nottingham with a fairly large group of friends. It was great, don't get me wrong, and a really nice way to finish 7 years of secondary education. But, looking back, we were immature. Most of us have moved out and matured. I've grown up a lot since then.

University life really does change you. I mean, this time last year, I had never:
1) 100% trusted someone with personal matters
2) Smoked a cigarette
3) Got drunk
4) Danced provocatively in a club
5) Seen different perspectives on some topics
6) Been independent
7) Been fully myself

After 1 year at uni, I can say I've now done all of those. All of them. If you'd have asked me this time last year about any of those, I'd have given a very different response to most.

Moving 200 miles away was definitely a move for the greater good (the greater good). Throughout the few years before coming to uni, I was never properly happy. There was always something on my mind to burst my temporary happiness bubble, whether it was studying for A-Levels, a family death or supporting a friend through cycles of depression, to name a few of the many. Music was the way I coped through all this. That's probably why my hearing isn't the best. Because loud music makes you temporarily forget everything except it. Which can be a blessing at times.

Of course, I had and still have a close group of friends to count on, although that has been reshuffled a little bit over the past year. There's only one person out there who knows absolutely everything about me. But 8 months ago, I didn't know he existed. Funny how these things work. A few close friends knew most matters. But I never fully trusted them the way I now trust him. I think it's fairly obvious who I'm talking about.

This year, for the first time, I've been able to do things the way I want them to be done. Freshers week was my first sense of complete independence and it went uphill from there. Living with parents was all getting a bit too much. I've been back a month on and off and it got too much weeks ago. Another reason why I love being back, albeit temporarily.

And, most importantly, this year I've been completely myself. My first year at university gave me a change to completely reinvent myself. I've done things I would never have considered doing this time last year, I've got stuck into university life and I'm already the vice president of a society. But most importantly, I've made new friends, who I know I'll have for a long time.

The best bit about this year? I'm doing it all again for the next 2.