Peterhouse
In contrast to the many tales told by my fellow graduates of excited anticipation upon receiving their offer letters and arriving at Cambridge for the first time, on 28 September 2023 I walked through the doors of my accommodation determined to hate Cambridge. It was everything I had decided I was not, and by the end of the first Quiz Night in the JCR I had resolved that I was here to do my degree and nothing more.
No one was more surprised than I when, by Lent term of my first year, I was running for the JCR, attending formals with new friends, and spending my Michaelmas evenings scrambling for a seat in the Parlour to hear whatever talk the History Society or the Theory Group were putting on. Peterhouse seems to have that effect on people. It pulls you in when you least expect it, and I am grateful I allowed it to do so.
Three years on, the ‘highs’ certainly dominate: summer evenings picnicking in the Deer Park, accidentally stamping on everyone’s feet attempting the Ceilidh at Peterhouse May Ball, and watching my extraordinarily talented friends singing and playing at Evensongs and College Concerts.
Yet, what makes Peterhouse ‘Peterhouse’ are the more mundane moments. It is in the less glamorous ‘picnics’ of Sainsbury’s Meal Deals eaten on the footsteps of St Peter’s Terrace before heading off to a supervision; in huddling against the fire in hall so our fingers wouldn’t freeze off while trying to eat dinner; in the summer evenings spent in the Ward Library when it was Just Slightly Too Warm to think properly; and in frantically knocking on all my friends’ doors to ask for a spare flashcard or two, or the loan of a pink highlighter. It was then that I truly felt myself part of Peterhouse, and it is what I will miss the most.
My friends’ favourite sarcastic quip was: ‘Remember, it’s not a PeterHOUSE, it’s a PeterHOME.’ And whether you are leaving or staying on for another year, you will always carry an inescapable piece of that PeterHOME with you. I certainly know that I will.
Sarah Misraoui
Historical Tripos
JCR President 2025-2026
