Nobody Tells You This About Your First Semester at Legon

Nobody Tells You This About Your First Semester at Legon

Nobody Tells You This About Your First Semester at Legon

So, you finally made it to Legon.

After the excitement of receiving your admission letter, buying your first set of university clothes, joining countless WhatsApp groups and hearing “University is free, you can do whatever you want!”, reality eventually begins to set in. You are now entering a world where, for the most part, nobody is going to constantly remind you what to do.

There are no teachers checking whether you have completed your assignments or not. Nobody may even notice if you miss a lecture. Suddenly, you have a level of freedom you may never have experienced before. And while that freedom can be very exciting, it also comes with responsibilities.

Your first semester at the University of Ghana can be exciting, confusing, overwhelming, and sometimes all three at once. There are guides that will tell you how to register your courses, find your lecture halls and navigate campus, but there are some lessons you only learn by actually living through the experience.

For starters, nobody really tells you how normal it is to feel lost.

You may spend your first few weeks trying to understand your timetable, finding lecture halls, figuring out Sakai or sitting in a lecture wondering whether everyone else somehow understands what is happening except you. You might look around and see people who seem completely settled while you are still trying to find your way around campus. The truth is, many of them are figuring things out too.

Give yourself time. Ask questions and talk to continuing students. If you don't understand something, say so. There is absolutely no prize for pretending to know your way around when you are clearly lost. Everyone was a fresher once.

Then comes the issue of friendships. Legon will introduce you to a lot of people, and you may feel like you need to immediately find your “people.” You don't. 

Some people you meet will become close friends. Others will remain course mates. Some will simply be familiar faces you greet when you cross paths. And that is perfectly fine. University is not a competition to see who can have the largest social circle.

Be intentional about the people you allow close to you. Find people who respect you, encourage you and allow you to be yourself. Don't force a friendship simply because you are afraid of being alone. Sometimes, being comfortable with your own company is better than being surrounded by people who make you uncomfortable.

Another thing you quickly discover is that freedom is a beautiful thing until you realize that nobody is coming to save you from your own decisions.

Legon gives you control over your time. You can decide whether to attend that lecture, whether to study tonight or tomorrow, whether to complete your assignment now or five minutes before the deadline. That freedom can be liberating, but it can also become a trap.

You may tell yourself that you will attend the next lecture, only to repeat the same thing several times. You may spend an entire afternoon scrolling through your phone and suddenly remember that you have an assignment due at midnight. You may keep postponing your reading until examinations are suddenly around the corner. 

Nobody is necessarily going to force you to be disciplined. Eventually, you have to learn to manage yourself. The freedom university gives you is only useful when you know how to use it responsibly.

And then there is money.

If there is one thing Legon can teach you very quickly, it is that money disappears. Food, transport, data, printing, handouts, unexpected expenses and the occasional outing can quietly eat your money.

Learning to budget early can save you a lot of stress. You don't have to stop enjoying yourself, but you should know what you can afford. Don't feel pressured to maintain a lifestyle simply because people around you appear to be doing so. Sometimes the person who looks like they have everything together is also wondering how they will survive until the next allowance.

Academically, perhaps the biggest mistake a fresher can make is assuming there will always be enough time to catch up. Because there actually isn't.

There is a temptation to think that the semester is still long and that serious studying can begin when examinations are closer. Then, almost without warning, it's the first half of the serm, IAs have kicked in, then the semester is ending and you are staring at weeks of material wondering where to even begin.

University courses can pile up quickly. You don't necessarily need to spend every waking hour studying, but you do need to stay connected to your courses. Attend lectures when you can. Review your notes. Start assignments early. Ask questions when you don't understand something. Small, consistent efforts can make the difference between approaching examinations with confidence and approaching them in panic.

But academics are not the only thing that can become overwhelming. Sometimes, you may simply need help.

There is a strange pressure among students to appear as though they have everything under control. You might think that asking for help makes you look incapable, but it doesn't. If you don't understand a topic, ask a course mate, teaching assistant or lecturer. If something outside academics is bothering you, talk to someone you trust. If you don't have someone you feel comfortable talking to, the Career and Counselling Directorate is always available. They're just around Commonwealth.

Independence does not mean doing everything alone. Sometimes, being responsible means recognising when you need support and having the courage to seek it.

Perhaps one of the hardest lessons of university is learning not to compare your journey with someone else's.

You will meet students who seem to have everything put together. Someone will have an impressive social circle. Someone will be involved in several organizations. Someone will be getting amazing grades. Someone will appear to be having the perfect university experience.

Meanwhile, you might be wondering whether you even know what you are doing.

Remember that you are seeing only parts of people's lives. Your university experience does not have to look like somebody else's. You don't have to attend every event, join every organization, have hundreds of friends or constantly be doing something exciting for your time at Legon to be meaningful.

And perhaps most importantly, your first semester does not define your entire university journey. You still have more time.

Maybe you do exceptionally well. Maybe you don't. Maybe you make lifelong friends immediately. Maybe it takes a while. Maybe you arrive on campus full of confidence, or maybe you spend your first few months trying to find yourself.

Whatever happens, don't let one semester convince you that you have already determined the outcome of your university experience.

University is a process. You will change. Your priorities will change. Some friendships will last, others won't. You will make mistakes, learn from them and discover things about yourself that you didn't know when you first arrived. You'll just have to give yourself room to grow.

Attend your lectures. Make friends, but choose them wisely. Take your academics seriously. Learn to manage your money. Ask questions. Try new things. Take care of yourself. And don't be too hard on yourself when you don't have everything figured out immediately.

Your first semester is not supposed to be a perfect performance.

It is your introduction to a new chapter of your life.

Welcome to Legon. You have a lot to learn, but you also have a lot to become.

Authored by: Akpalu Edmond Deladem

Published by: Arthur David