I was “one of those” in high school. I took part in every school play, played the trumpet in marching band (I know), scored accidental goals for the girls’ football team and even tried self-defence for a year. You could say I like to keep busy (to the point of near-collapse every week), and I most certainly was not planning on changing that when I came to university. 

By this point, we’ve all been there. And by there, I mean at Parker’s Piece during one of the most exciting, overwhelming and eye-opening times of the year – the Freshers’ Fair.  

I signed myself up for the Tea Society, for which I have yet to attend a gathering but regularly receive emails that prompt me to think "yes, I should really go to that”. I also put my name down to be a part of the Cake Faeries, a group of people who, from what I understand after two years on the mailing list, bake sweet treats and deliver them to those who sign up to receive them; I’m such a master procrastinator that I will, apparently, procrastinate receiving free food.

"I regularly receive emails that prompt me to think "yes, I should really go to that"

We’ve all heard the warnings to not sign up to too many societies because we ‘won’t have the time’, which in my experience has evidently proved to be accurate. However, I would still recommend trying to exercise all of your different interests as much as you can, no matter how ridiculous they may seem.

Before arriving in Cambridge, I had decided that I was going to be a part of the Assassin’s Guild, a university-wide game in which you are given the names of three people whom you have to ‘kill’ whilst also remembering that you are on someone else’s hit list.

My enthusiasm was short-lived, however, as I was unceremoniously murdered during pre-drinks one night after being horrifically betrayed by a boy who had kissed and then ghosted me. I received a knock on my door and naturally, when my intoxicated self realised who it was, I was expecting an apology or a declaration of some sort, but instead I found myself soaked, and not in the way I had been expecting. It turned out that he had brought my murderer to my door and I had been struck by a water balloon. 

Nevertheless, no matter how many society-related blunders you make, it will all be worth it once you find your ‘thing’. After attending one of their many taster sessions around the university, I joined the Cambridge University Dancesport Team, affectionately known to me now as ‘CUDT’, ‘the dancers’ or ‘the light of my entire life’. I have waltzed and cha cha-ed my way across the country, competed at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool and even earned my half-blue in a sport I would never have seen myself doing just a few short years ago.

The fact that there is such an inordinate amount of societies and things to do at Cambridge simply means that there is genuinely something for everyone, so go forth and try out anything and everything you can. Try to figure out how and why Ultimate Frisbee is a thing, learn what Tiddlywinks is after reading about it in every British children’s book, and even try rowing just so you can say that you have. The Bubble is your oyster.