I graduated after three years of university at the start of this month. These three years have had their fair share of heartbreak, tears, stress and breakdowns but also some of the best times I have ever had. It was a time when I found who I was as a person and, more importantly, discovered that I will continuously change for the rest of my life – and that’s okay. Not everything I learnt was quite as profound however and I have compiled a list of things these three years have taught me:
- You will not remain friends with everyone you went to high school with – this may not even be a bad thing, friendships don’t always end with an argument or something dramatic happening, it can be as simple as two people drifting apart or realising you were only friends with someone because you seen them everyday.
- You will make some of the best friends you’ve had in your life – Just as uni can break friendships it can strengthen them too or create new ones. If you live near your university you will be minutes away from any friend, you will practically live in their house or flat and them yours.
- Wine is cheap to drink and gets you drunk quickly – I am all too familiar with this and we’ll leave it at that.
- Just because fast food is the easiest option doesn’t mean you should always take it – Again, I’m far too familiar with this.
- That being said it is a must to treat yourself when your loan comes in – it’s just a waste if you don’t buy a large dominos pizza with sides and a dessert on the richest day of a students life.
- Hot water bottles during the winter months are a necessity – student housing gets cold easily.
- Picking one day to clean the house every week is a good idea – it won’t always work but on the weeks it does at least your house doesn’t look like a complete bombsite, not that you’ll care but my cleaning night is a Sunday.
- Berocca boost, dioralyte and a pint of water can cure any hangover – or at least make it better, add a bacon buttie to that if you can stomach food.
- “Eatings cheating” is a load of shite – always eat before you go out drinking, you’ll only end up coming home sooner, and most likely disgraced, if you don’t.
- Coffee is your best friend – before uni I didn’t even like coffee, couldn’t stomach it, but now I’m not myself until I have my morning americano.
- Porridge is the best thing to eat if you have an early morning, long class – there’s nothing worse than having your stomach growl in the middle of a lecture.
- Freshers Fifteen isn’t nearly as bad as the final year weight gain – trying to squeeze in time to eat healthily while getting in those final essays is near impossible and you want to eat comfort food a lot more.
- Be that friend who takes in their drunk, upset friend at 3am and offers them tea and party rings – unfortunately I was that drunk friend, more than once, but now if the friend that helped me ever needs ANYTHING I’m there to help. It pays to be nice.
- Going to the library is actually worthwhile – May seem like an obvious statement but I shameful had only been in my university’s library a handful of times before my final year of my course. But between checking out books for my dissertation, research for essays and presentations I discovered just how much I was missing.
- No matter how grown up you think you are, you’re always going to need your mum/dad – The amount of times I would go home during the week just to spend some quality time at home was alarming in the first year. I’m lucky that I went to a university only half an hour away by car and could travel so freely home. I’m just a home bird. But even my more independent friends who lived further a field needed to come home sometimes.
- Despite your best intentions that gym membership will not always be worthwhile – during the last few months at uni I barely went to the gym at all but had paid for a yearly membership all in one go, which clearly was a waste of money and for a poor student that money could have been used in other more worthwhile places.
- Try and earn money where ever you can – I’m signed up for everything. Survey sites, watching ads for a small fee (usually they pay you 1p or something stupidly small), reviewing site, etc. Everything adds up. I used to buy my clothes with the money to treat myself rather than using the money from my actual jobs.
- Some things ARE free – whether it be classes (I went to a nifty class in my local theatre recently about advice on how to be a playwright for free), cool events (the club I work for holds an annual fair that gives away free things from food to alcohol and everything in between) or even tea or coffee (after club nights there is usually organisations that line the streets offering hot beverages and a biscuit to clubbers – I only usually take up this offer when the designated driver as I feel the cold more easily when sober AND if I was drunk I’d 100% spill the tea or coffee over myself).
- Making a big meal as a house is a LOT cheaper than making a meal for one – finding that all important meal that you all like is the hard part.
- University will give you some of the best memories and stories of your life so far – I could tell you countless amount of stories about these past three years, some happy, some funny and some really, really sad. But I will hopefully never forget them. I’ve changed so much over this past while and I will always count going to university as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made (so far).
That is what I’ve learnt so far. Due to my clear love of my uni I decided last minute to go back and do a masters straight away (when I say last minute, I was thinking about doing a masters but a couple of years down the line was always my plan). I hope to learn new I learn just as much during this year as I’ve done all the others and honestly I can’t wait.
Feeling Fitter. 