Hi Fresher and welcome to Valtsika!
Hard work and waiting for admission decisions is finally over, and well-earned study place is here for you! Whether you have got over a training course or matriculation examination, you can be proud of yourself. You have the most unforgettable years just in front of you! You might have both happy and terrifying feelings now what will happen next, but we tutors are here to make sure that you have the softest landing to the Valtsika. Soon orientation week will begin, and we get to meet you face to face!
I can still warmly remember my own orientation week and especially the amazing first encounters with other freshers. I was nervous about the first meet, but tutors swept all the nervousness right away by organizing different get-to-know games. If you feel uncertain and nervous at the moment, probably everybody else feels the same.
What I would have wanted to know before my studies? Absolutely that university studies don’t mean grinding around the clock and saying goodbye to free time. In addition to the most memorable student parties and vappu, endless amount of work and deadlines are too often related to university studies. Balance is the core of everything, but I personally focused too much on stressing over studies, so that I couldn’t attend every event I wanted. It was hard to get a picture of how much I had to spend time for courses, especially because painful training course was clearly on my mind and those courses were done home alone. In April, I had an eye-opening conversation with peer students, and I got the understanding that none of us seemed to study eight hours a day daily. I wish I had had this conversation in the beginning of my studies so that I could’ve enjoyed more of my fresher year! To avoid this mistake: You have the worst behind you, and you have the license to enjoy!
Even though I spend a lot of my time stressing over my studies, there were a crazy number of amazing moments on my fresher year. I had never attended to sitsit and even heard one of sitsi songs before, so my first sitsit were absolutely a blast. Also, different songs in Halloween Party at Kuppala had a place in my heart. And wasn’t it cool to put my overalls on during vappu. Maybe a cliché, but the wonderful people around me I got to meet, made my fresher year. I can’t wait for next fall because now corona restrictions seem to be gone, so that we could live ‘normal university life’.
Have a great end of summer and see you in August!
Jenna Kihlström
Student (2021-) and a tutor for new students in 2022