Well, I don’t really want to let the cat out of the bag but I’ve sort of mentioned it a couple of times (for example here and over here and lots more here), anyway here we go – I graduate in June. Ok, now that’s ‘out in the open’ the rest of this might make sense.
For the time I was at St Andrews my email address and other related things all carried the abbreviation cfc4 (those being my initials and a random number). After you graduate you are meant to get six months to move anything you need from your University email and computer account, but for some reason we’ve been given a slightly longer reprieve. Sadly, however, that time is over and as of today cfc4 no longer exists.
This has led to all sorts of ‘Oh no…’s and waves of nostalgia each time an email from the IT people has come through saying that ‘your university computer account will be closed in X days’. I should probably point out at this juncture that I am fully aware of how pathetic this all sounds, but please indulge me.
Through all of this I keep getting reminded that there’s something I’ve been meaning to sort out since August and now seems an appropriate time to share it.
Although I officially left in June I was actually back working in the Bubble for the first part of August. On one sunny afternoon, buoyed the success of a Walk in the Park, I took my camera for a walk in the brilliant summer sunshine. When the sun shines St Andrews is an absolutely stunning town and on this occasion it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. I walked from the very tip of the Pier down to West Sands – via the Cathedral, the Castle, Younger Hall, St Salvator’s Chapel, United College Quad, The Scores and (of course) the Royal & Ancient Golf Club at the Old Course.
Whilst this is one more connection being severed this is not the end. The email address might be going and I can no longer log on to their computers, but let’s be honest how much time did we spend complaining about the email system and the rubbish computers? Probably quite a bit. And how often did we pass comment on getting emails from student societies that we had never signed up for? And now that we’re not actually there aren’t those emails even more annoying?
A lot has changed since the 22nd June 2011 and my time as an undergraduate student is forever over. But regardless of the passage of time we’ll always have St Andrews, and it will forever have that uncanny knack of feeling like home.
Cr
