Nostalgia

As part of my placement year, all the students who have been working for the year come back to our University for a day and exhibit our own experiences and learning curbs in an assessed presentation. It’s a chance to network and catch up with friends. I suppose it can be likened to meeting your friends from school at a reunion.

It’s so strange to see people that were in the same boat as you at one point – stressing over exams, student nights and student life – are now immersed in other parts of the country, doing completely different things to each other. At university they really didn’t seem that different to me, even if we had come from different parts of the country, or even world. We all had a common goal, and fairly similar obstacles to get there.

Whilst catching up with friends and previous project buddies, I realised how much we have moved in different directions in such a short time. With the new responsibility we all seemed to have matured, more than the 20 year old who still didn’t know how to boil an egg or refuse to do the washing up for 3 months straight.

One thing about this trip back to University for the first time in 6 months is that it reminded me of what student life was like. I was reminded that in 8 months time I would be back to studying over evenings, weekends and Christmas. The library would be my second home. I would be back on Tesco value or reduced foods, and my diet would revert back to eating like a vegetarian to save money. Whilst I enjoy having the freedom that students enjoy, I much prefer having a sufficient regular income, evenings and weekends work free and enjoying the Christmas break for the first time in 6 years!

I’ll definitely be an eye opener when I return to University in October and I believe it’ll make me appreciate the positives of working full time and also student life.