18 September 2002 Back To School So university began a few days early for me folks. Yours truly got dragged in to be a 'student mentor'. Yeah, me, looking after a dozen freshers and introducing them to student life. Stop bloody sniggering. For some reason or other my head of year thought I'd be a good candidate for the job and phoned me last week to ask if I'd do it. Hell, I get paid for it too. I really, really wish I'd done a better job though. I've had a miserable dose of the flu since last week so I hadn't done any preperation - then again I didn't really know what I was supposed to do anyway. It seems it's quite a new idea - in the States and Canada you have student mentors who look after their group of first years for the first week. This being the UK, the kids get a mentor for the day. I know....me giving a group of young people the benefit of my experience.........Urgh, I dunno, I suppose it sounds more convincing if it comes from another student as opposed to a faculty member. Of course the other benefit is a fellow student can give advice on the best pubs and clubs ;-) I didn't bullshit - I didn't feel the need to. I told them the lecturers are decent, that the work is hard, but not to panic if they felt it was getting too much for them; that it would seem strange to be making the transition from the way they were being taught in sixth form to the way uni works. However, I also told them they'd be able to handle it or they wouldn't be there in the first place. Most importantly I told the girls not to leave their drinks unattended if they're out at the clubs. Spiking drinks is a damned way of life down there and whenever I'm taxi-driving I hear enough stories coming from the back seat, both from spikers and spikees. I answered questions about transport, banks - even where to hire a decent tv and video. Then I showed them where the Student's Union bar was and told them how to get their bar cards because, let's face it, it's stuff like that every fresher needs to know ;-)
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