Everyone in the study association that has a free room, bed or couch is mobilised to help solve the lack of housing for starting students. The room shortage is acutely felt this year. Even a boy from Friesland who ends up with me appears to have no priority status with Idealis. ‘Had I lived one kilometre further away, I would have been granted a priority status’, he says. He was forbidden from discussing his introduction week at the students’ association but returned covered in mud, with twigs and leaves in his hair and scratched arms. ‘I survived on bread for a week, so a hot meal would be great.’ I made a simple pasta dish. He eyes my plate. ‘Are you going to eat that?’
As a sixth-year student (I switched programmes halfway through), I am a monument of tranquillity for the first-year student bunking with us. We follow the same programme, so I take on the role of all-knowing information point during these weeks. The stream of questions is endless. Whether I am going home this weekend (no), whether I miss home sometimes (yes), whether I know what tomorrow’s practical is about (no idea), whether attending lectures is important (yes).
I take on the role of all-knowing information point during these weeks
Our freshly arrived Friesian’s questions make me feel as if I have seen everything there is to see after having followed bachelor’s courses for so long. And, although I can take as much time as I need for my studies, at some point, it’s enough. And not just in terms of studying.
I am a relic from pre-covid times. A group member asked me whether I was born before the turn of the century. We used to have Blackboard instead of Brightspace, and we were permitted to smoke in the classrooms… I feel that I should wrap up here as soon as possible and yield the floor to post-covid students and everyone born after the turn of the century. Now all that remains is to set a date for my graduation.
Ilja Bouwknegt is 23, a bachelor’s student of Forest and Nature Management, and an active member of the study association WSBV Sylvatica. She sometimes does bat research at night.
