My first year at university

I was going to do Japanese at Durham, but although I got the results I needed, I bottled it at the last minute. I realised I wasn't going to enjoy the course, so when I got my results I called Ucas and pulled out. I wanted to be a journalist, so the local college advised me to do a shorthand course and some work experience and then, if I liked it, to come back and do a BA in journalism. I decided to live at home, which was a really scary thing. There was one other guy travelling from home, so on the first day we felt a bit on the back foot because everyone else had moved into halls over the weekend. But although you think you are going to miss out, you don't – you still get to be part of it, you sleep on people's sofas, you're part of the banter. In the end, the only difference was that I found I had a bit more money, which meant I could do more work experience placements. My course was really practical, with lots of law and shorthand, and there were a few people who were disappointed that it was a bit like school: if you didn't get a good enough speed at shorthand you couldn't move on to the next year. But I left with so many practical skills. I could use the programmes that were being used at the time in the BBC, which meant I could go into a newsroom and cut a voxpop and be useful immediately. Top Tip Leave the shyness at the door and just go and say hello. And don't be embarrassed to be living at home – you get clean clothes and you don't have to share a bathroom with strangers. Helen Skelton achieved a first in journalism. She studied at Cumbria Institute of the Arts (now University of Cumbria) from 2001-04. The new series of Blue Peter returns in September