It feels like only a few short weeks ago that I trailed around Wilkinsons buying pretty much the whole store. It doesn’t feel like too long ago that I was waving goodbye to my parents at the door of my first university halls. It seems like yesterday I was ringing my mom moaning about the state of the kitchen, that I was getting excited about moving in with friends, that I was stressing about silly first year exams.
And now I’m done. Finished. Just like that, university is over.
I’m not too sure that it’s fully sunken in yet.
There’s been times I have regretted coming to university, particularly throughout final year. When I’ve come off the phone in tears from another rejection-at-final-stage, when I was facing graduating without a job. When I couldn’t get my head around a topic, when I sat in front of a past exam paper and literally couldn’t attempt more than a single question. I was honestly ready to give it all up. If someone had given me a ‘get out’ card, I would have taken it like a shot. Yet I pushed through. I got there. I’ll know whether it was worth it on results day in a few weeks, but right now I’m just proud for actually finishing.
And despite those difficulties, there’s been far more good times. The best friends I’ve made for life, the girls who will stand alongside my sister as my bridesmaids. My placement year, and the confidence it gave me. Surviving long distance, and coming out with a wonderful relationship, stronger than I could have wished for. The fact that I can ‘do’ maths. The dream job I have finally secured for September.
I may not have been a conventional student, with my love-hate relationship with alcohol, my positive dislike of going ‘out out’ and my preference for an early night with a good book and a cuppa. But I wouldn’t have changed my university experience for the world. I’m excited for what the next few years bring, but right now I’m holding on. Holding on to living with my girls, holding on to living in Canterbury. It’s gone far too quickly.
What did you feel upon leaving university?
