It presents the ideal opportunity to weaponise the mystery of people not knowing who you are to your advantage. As a result, it leads to students feeling obligated to change their lifestyle, their appearance, and sometimes even their personality. The anxiety of becoming a ‘social outcast’ during Freshers Week and not making friends further accelerates the insatiable desire to ‘reinvent’ yourself, in hopes that others will like you.
The paranoia of having to enhance who you are creates the perfect opportunity to buy new clothes. However, this seemingly fun activity can quickly generate a downward spiral of feeding into unnecessary and unprecedented consumerism. People end up buying entire new wardrobes full of clothes that they plan on attending their lectures in. Yet by the first week this notion of having to impress everyone can likely fade. As on the day you have a 9am lecture and went out clubbing until 3am, you will probably arrive at the lecture in a pair of comfy joggers and a hoodie. This ultimately defeats the purpose of ‘reinventing’ the current version of yourself, who there is nothing wrong with.
You can introduce the authentic version of yourself and make friends who like you for you.
‘Reinvention’ when arriving at university should not be about creating a new version of yourself that you think other people will like. But instead utilising your uniqueness to make new friends and feel a sense of belonging at your new home. The best way to weaponise the mystery of people not knowing who you are is to become actively involved in university life. Through joining a club or society, attending an event during Freshers Week, or speaking next to the person beside you in your lecture. You can introduce the authentic version of yourself and make friends who like you for you.
Think of the new term as a time for adaptation rather than ‘reinvention’, as you share the version of yourself that your friends from back home came to know and love.