I’m lucky in that I’ve been able to experience the working world in the knowledge that I have one more year left of student-hood, one more year before I join the real world. Let me tell you this, I’ll definitely be making the most of it! I found the jump into working life really tough, so going back to studying is something I’m really looking forward to. Leanne from The Dress Diaries has written a post all about things she misses now she’s graduated – I’m going to keep a note of these to make sure I appreciate them over the next academic year!
Secondly, this is where your student life ends and ‘adult’ life begins and although I’ll be the first to tell you it’s a great thing, it also means you’re leaving a few perks behind.
I’ve compiled a list of the main things I miss about being a student and if you’re lucky enough to still have some sweet student years left, don’t take these for granted!
Long, Long Holidays
A month off for Christmas, another month for Easter and over two months off when it comes to Summer. Who WOULDN’T love not having to work for a third of the entire year? Now, we’re limited to 28 days holiday a year if we’re lucky and wishing we’d spent more time making the most of so much free time instead of spending it in bed.
Student Discount
What owning an NUS card meant to me: up to 20% discounts at ASOS and Topshop, free entry into bars on a student night and super cheap drinks. Student discounts have to be the biggest perks of being at university. When I graduated, I genuinely contemplated going on to do another course just so I’d have a few more years of free cheeseburgers at McDonalds.
Tears still well up every time the girl at the Topshop counter asks if I have a student card and I have to admit to her, and myself, the truth…
The Casual Timetable
The thing I miss most about student life is getting entire days off mid-week that you could spend watching films, having sex and drinking. It was full of late nights and late mornings because we had no other responsibilities and a 9-5 working day was unheard of . Nowadays, all of this has to be compressed into a weekend with constant reminders of the working week looming towards you at a pace similar to Usain Bolt.
Fancy Dress is Always Appropriate
University is a time when it is absolutely acceptable to wear themed fancy dress every week. Sports team pub crawls, birthdays, results days and sometimes just because we felt like donning a leotard and some leg-warmers. Don’t even get me started on the extent to which we celebrated Halloween.
For most people, University means leaving the comfort and safety of your parent’s home for the first time and getting used to a house full of strangers. It’s likely these strangers actually become a crowd you’re actually pretty fond of. There are people who cook for you on occasion, those who clean the kitchen after house parties and there’s always someone to get drunk with chat to. After graduation it’s likely your group will disperse and you each have your own dreams to fulfill. You can keep in touch and stalk their adventures on Facebook but it’s not the same. On the plus side, you won’t wake up to someone blasting Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ to the entire house at the end of every week – true story.
Out of all of these things, I definitely think is going to be the ‘Living with Best Friends’ bit that I will miss most. I’m living with two lovely girls during my final year, I lived with them in second year and have missed them like crazy over the past couple of months. It will be great to go back to having a girly household, Sunday dinners every week, and plenty of nail polishes to borrow! I’m already dreading leaving them next summer…
What’s your favorite bit about university, or what do you miss the most?
