This has been my fourth Cambridge Freshers’ Week. My arrival onto Cambridge’s hallowed cobbles is but a distant memory of a naïve and nervous teenage me; yet to have experienced his first all-night library session, Wednesday Cindies or the crushing disappointment of having his first essay returned with the single annotation: “This is not a sentence.” But in the three years between then and now, I’ve garnered some pearls of worldly wisdom that I’m feeling generous enough to impart upon you, little fresher, in a short collection of things I wish I’d known when I stood in your quivering shoes.

You don’t have to become best friends with the first person you met. Nor do you have to be bosom buddies with your next door neighbour, the girl who slurped her soup next to you at freshers’ formal or your college brother who has an avid passion for larping. After all, this is Cambridge; you will undoubtedly meet some people you find rather odd, but I can equally promise you will meet some great ones who will become some of the best friends you will ever have. This doesn’t, however, mean you can be a dick to people you don’t get on with immediately. You never know when you’ll need the help of your supervision partner, who, when you first met insisted on telling you in detail about each of the 14 ponies she’s ever owned.

There will be times when you are sat in your room, on your own, not knowing what to do; but everyone else will experience this too. Go and knock on someone’s door and see if they want to go to a freshers’ squash. Text that guy saved to your phone as ‘Blonde Geographer’ and see whether he wants to grab lunch. Chances are the person you reach out to will have also been moping about in their room and bite your arm off at the offer of company that isn’t Netflix. And if they are already doing something, ask to join them: the worst they can say is no.

No one is having as great a time as their Facebook profile suggests. One of the worst things about Cambridge Freshers’, excluding the crap and overcrowded clubnights, is that almost all of your friends will have had their Freshers’ weeks last month. September’s social media will have been nothing but a torrent of drunken selfies of school friends at Manchester or Leeds, daubed in UV paint and fancy dress having the “BEST NIGHT EVERRRR”. These people are liars. The ‘best night ever’ does not involve UV paint, in any capacity. I doubt they even remember the name of the girl whose neck they’re hanging around like an intoxicated orangutan. So when you wake up after a distinctly average night in Lola’s, which involved getting obscenely drunk to combat the pain of an accidental stiletto to the foot in the hour long queue, there is no need to fear; this is the quintessential freshers’ experience; you’re missing out on nothing.

There will be that one person doing your subject who on the first night loudly declares that they couldn’t possibly go out because they already have too much work to do. They are wrong. Do not let them make you feel bad. For the entirety of the next three years, there will always be work you could be doing instead of going out. You will never again be able to wake up at midday and not feel guilty. Before mid-term deadlines hit, seize the opportunity to go to the pub. This is the first term of your first year at university, make the most of it.

Cambridge societies are all-encompassing and all-consuming. If you have an interest in something, you can bet your entire student loan that there is a society for it. Societies and sports teams are a great way to meet new people and make friends outside of college who share your passion for belly dancing or your love of korfball. However, be warned: as much as you may think you’re Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s number one fan, however badly you want the Kitesurfing Society stash, and even, if for some bizarre reason, you might think it useful to learn Esperanto, signing your CRSid on that dotted line is volunteering yourself for a three-year-long barrage of near-daily emails from societies that you may never bother to turn up to. Hi, Blind Wine Tasting Society.

Disregarding these Freshers’ Fair impulses, I urge you to throw yourself into life outside academia. Join interesting societies, play a sport, go to a range of events and accept exciting invitations and suggestions. At times, you may not feel like being friendly, you might miss home or be overwhelmed by this bizarre place, where people seem to speak a different language of swaps and supervisions, bops and Blues. But this is your home for at least the next three years. Embrace it. Cambridge is weird, but it’s wonderful.