“It’ll fly by” they said.
“It will be over before you know it” they said.
They weren’t lying!
It’s hard to believe that four years of university are over and done with. Grades have been confirmed, graduation gowns ordered, and my house is pretty much all packed up and ready for me to leave. Whilst I’m quietly relieved that the hardwork is over, whilst I’m loving being able to read actual books again, I’m also struggling a bit a lot. It’s finally sunken in that I’ll no longer live with my friends, that there won’t be any more of the late-night girly chats. I’ll miss moaning about coursework deadlines, I’ll probably even miss my Friday-night train journeys up to W. Yes, I’m super excited to move in with him. Yes, I’m thrilled to be starting my dream job. But I don’t feel quite ready to let go of university, and right now, sitting at home, I feel a little lost.
That said, we finished off university in the most perfect way. A big BBQ (complete with cute bunting – oh so Pinterest!), dressing up for the summer “ball”, sunning ourselves for a few days in France.
With our final year house having a decent-sized garden and a massive conservatory, since paying the deposit we’d be planning a BBQ to end all BBQs for our final weekend. Armed with a fridge-full of burgers, a whole lot of Pimms and multiple disposable BBQs, we cooked up a storm. Tortilla chips and dips kept guests happy, soaking up the first batch of Pimms. Potato wedges and couscous salad bulked things up, peri-peri chicken drumsticks went down a storm. We may have slightly over-catered, but we weren’t complaining when the 2am munchies hit and there was plenty of garlic bread left!
The day of our BBQ also coincided with Kent’s Summer Ball – or rather the Party in the Car Park. I’ll be doing a full(er) post on my outfit soon as I LOVED my dress (once I’d tweaked it – the slit was so high it showed off rather more than I was comfortable. Including my belly button… ) but I will say we had a wonderful night. Us girls looked fabulous, our men looked smart, and of course we made the most of our outfits by making the bumper cars our first port of call!
It’s not all been fun, games and lying in the sun however. Packing up a house, particularly one which holds such good memories, is probably one of the most depressing things I’ve done. And that’s before we get started on all the cleaning… Luckily this year I’ve had help on hand to make it that little bit easier.
I wrote a post a while ago on getting your rental deposit back, and I’ve been following my own advice over the last few weeks. When Oven Pride got in touch to send me over their signature oven cleaner, I jumped at the chance. Call me weird, but cleaning an oven is probably my favorite part. Mainly because I don’t do it regularly, so when I do do it, I can see a difference. Whilst I haven’t used it yet (I’m waiting until the last minute!) it’s the brand I used way back in first year. And if it could clean that cooker, it could clean anything! I’m tempted to do a before-and-after once it’s done, if I can brave showing anyone just what it’s currently like without a clean! I’ve always considered oven and fridge cleaning to be one of the most important jobs when leaving a rental property – making an effort to tackle the ‘big’ things shows that you do care about the property – and these are always the more costly items for agents to sort out themselves. Fingers crossed we get all our deposit back – it’s earmarked for holiday money!
And then there’s hoovering. A house of three girls should come with a hazard warning – there’s a LOT of hair shedding going on! The provided hoover just isn’t quite up to the job, so when Dirt Devil offered to send me their Stick Vacumn I was pretty relieved! In all honest, a hoover isn’t something I ever expected to be excited about (might as well start sending me slippers and chair lifts now guys, old age is clearly approaching fast!) I do like this one. It’s taking a little getting used to as it’s very top heavy, but it’s powerful, relatively quiet, and tucks away nicely into a cupboard or corner (it’s going to be ideal when we find a flat in London!).
I may be utterly exhausted and suffering from a migraine, but nothing is stopping me celebrating tonight – I AM GRADUATING WITH A FIRST! So happy right now! #champagne #bubbles #fizz #celebration #examresults #graduation #degreeclass #degreeclassification #graduating #university #universitylife #student #studentlife #whatastudentdoes
A photo posted by Chloe Ellen (@ninegrandstudent) on Jun 16, 2016 at 10:28am PDT
Whilst the past few weeks have been taken up with cleaning, tidying, packing and sorting, there’s been fun, lots of food and a whole lot of laughter. There’s also been huge celebrations – finding out I’m graduating with First Class Honours bought me to tears last week, and there’s been plenty of champagne consumed since!
How did you celebrate leaving university? Do you have any tips for making sure you get all your rental deposit back?
