The Graduate

Yesterday I graduated from university with an upper second class degree in psychology. It was a lovely day celebrating with my closest course friends and family- yes the clapping for every single person graduating got a little tedious, but the promise of a bottle of Moët afterwards made it a little easier. It was the best way to end my three years at uni however it's left me with very mixed emotions; I'm proud of my friends & I for achieving what we wanted and I'm relieved to never have to sit an exam again, yet it has finally started to sink in that it's all over now and with that, the realisation that all the people I've spent the last three years with will never all be together again (bar the inevitable wedding season I predict will begin in 4-5 years). I don't want to get too sentimental (said in-between sobs) but my conflicting emotions have left me wanting to write a little about my experiences, so here are my pearls of wisdom for current or future university-goers.

1. Make the best of a potentially bad situation - I was so worried when I moved into halls because I was moving into a flat of 18 people; the thought of living with so many new people had me in a panic as soon as I found out my halls allocation. I considered trying to request moving to another before I arrived but now I'm really glad I didn't- I ended up being lucky and making friends with 5 other girls in my flat and we've all lived together ever since.

2. Get involved & put yourself out there - this is probably the most generic piece of advice that can be offered to soon-to-be students but it's important to remember and something that I wish I'd realised earlier. There are so many different things to get involved in at university- typically there'll be a society from your course to join, as well as one for pretty much any hobby you can think of. Outside of societies there'll be various media outlets- my housemate had her own radio show for part of this last year-, volunteering opportunities and general events to attend. I think my only regret about my university life was not joining a society other than psychology society- which unfortunately wasn't particularly active. However, I did take part in the escape & evade event that our charity rag group organises; I consider getting to Zagreb in Croatia in 60 hours purely by hitch-hiking to be one of my greatest achievements. Be brave- even just by starting a nervous conversation with someone else on your course when you've no idea what's going on. Doing just that led to me meeting my group of close course friends.

3. Take full advantage of being a fresher - freshers is the only time in your life where it's okay to go out most nights of the week and sleep until at least midday every day. Also because first year doesn't count towards anything for most courses (sorry medics), skipping your 9am, or any lecture for that matter, really doesn't matter that much. I may have used that excuse far too liberally but I'm sure lecturers would rather people just not attend than fall asleep in their lectures on the reg.

4. Eat well - when I first started uni I think I went a little power-crazy over food. Suddenly you're in control of the food you buy, what you eat and when you eat it. Unfortunately I have bad news for you; a giant bowl of coco pops for breakfast and a two person serving of pasta for tea day-in day-out takes its toll. Yes, I fell victim to the 'fresher 15'. The silly thing was that I'm not actually clueless when it comes to cooking and I enjoy doing it, but I was just being lazy and boredom eating- when you only have 8 contact hours a week you need something to fill the time, what better than endless toast? I eat so much better nowadays and I feel better for it. Familiarise yourself with good old fruit and vegetables and learn to cook more than just instant noodles- trust me, it'll be worth it in the long run...both literally and figuratively.

5. Just enjoy it - I won't pretend that every day of my uni life was great; I've definitely had periods of feeling down and disillusioned but all I can think of now that it's over is what a brilliant three years I've had. Get ready for one of the biggest clichés in the book- I really feel like I've grown a lot and learnt a lot about myself over the last few years. When you're thrown into a completely new environment with a bunch of people you've never met before, it makes you think about how you want to represent yourself. I've been lucky enough to meet people who I hope will be in my life a long time, managed to gain a degree that I'm very happy with and had a lot of fun along the way. I appreciate that not everybody is lucky enough to have such a smooth-sailing experience, but I think either way it's an important few years to teach you a lot about yourself.

I think that's it for my sort-of-but-not-really-advice/excuse to reminisce. My apologies; this post has definitely turned out to be sappier than I originally intended- in future I'll try not to write when I'm feeling overly nostalgic...

Excuses & updates

For those who may be worried about my absence since my last, rather stressed-out, mid-exams post- my deepest apologies. I did in fact survive the exam period and a few weeks ago I found out that I will be graduating from university with a high 2.1 degree- I even managed to get a first in my dissertation somehow! The last 6 weeks or so have been pretty crazy; after exams was a blur of nights out and enjoying the last few weeks living in my student bubble with all my friends, including a pretty great grad ball- though fancy dresses, alcohol and fairground rides are definitely a questionable combination. I moved back home a couple of weeks ago and thus began the hunt for a job, which I'm relieved to report was so much easier than expected- I now have a job at a bar on Call Lane in Leeds. So far being back at home hasn't been bad, though I don't think it's quite sunk in that I won't be going back to uni in September and I can't really see past the next few months for now. I'm just trying to focus on my next goal which is that in a year I hope to be either starting (or getting close to) travelling around South America. It's a pretty scary goal seeing as it's seeming ever-more likely that I'll be doing it alone, but also really exciting.

My housemates & I ready for grad ball; my lovely uni campus; ball outfit close-up in my heavenly garden/prison yard

Given the excessive gap in posts I thought it'd be good to include a few current things I'm liking at the moment:

• TV show- After endless recommendations I have finally started watching Breaking Bad. I'm glad I waited until I had no uni commitments because I've watched 12 episodes in the last 48 hours..so I suppose you could say that's a current favourite. 
• Book- I'm still working on my reading resolution but I (again, finally) finished reading The Fault in our Stars as I wanted to make sure I'd read it before seeing the film. Despite the six months gap in reading sessions, I still had a good cry at the end and I definitely enjoyed it. Now I just need to keep working on the rest of my pile of poor abandoned books.
• Song- I'm about a year late on this but I've recently been listening the Foals' latest album 'Holy Fire'. It's all pretty good but I seem to have latched onto one song 'Milk & Black Spiders' and have been playing it on repeat this past week.
• My new camera- I was very lucky to receive a graduation present off my parents in the form of a canon 700D DSLR camera. I've always thought I'd like to have a proper camera and have been interested in photography generally- I love taking my old film camera and instax out and about- and I'm determined to get to grips with all the features. I'm hoping that I can use my camera to improve my blog too; I'm thinking of starting a series of showing a few of my favourite places in Leeds, so now I can have good quality photos instead of my sneaky iPhone snaps!

I'm still not quite sure what I want this blog to be. I think of it as more of a diary than anything else, but if you'd like to stick around for my sporadic life updates please do and I promise I won't be absent for 6 weeks this time. What have you been enjoying recently?