A Student’s Life for Me

Hello

This week we have guest blogger, Tom. Tom was another intern within our team. His post is a little different. But hey, we’re huge advocates and supporters of difference and diversity!

Student life is, for want of a better phrase, a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes, you experience some of the most amazing days in your life. Other times, you feel so tired after lectures you just want to curl up in a ball on your bed, with a big bag of tangy cheese Doritos, and watch Netflix till it everything passes. Either way, University will be the time of your life.

From the moment of opening up my results letter, I knew my life had begun. Well, actually no, I didn’t. However, if I had, I might have been a bit more excited than I actually was. I had no grand ideas of beginning the start of my life, no overly emotional monologs of encouragement. Though, as I’m staring down the barrel of my dissertation hand-in date three years later, I find myself being somewhat nostalgic.

I will never forget my first day. It was an experience alright. Being the keen munchkin that I am, I turned up early for key collection at the University of Gloucestershire’s (UoG) Francis Close hall. Unfortunately for me, I was too early. About four hours too early. Key collection started around 11 o’clock and my family and I were stuck, wondering around aimlessly, searching for someone to answer our questions. Having not found anyone, we opted for breakfast instead.

Cheltenham, I’ve decided, sits in that golden circle of size. It’s small enough that it doesn’t take you several hours to cross from side to side, but it’s big enough to have all of the interesting new shops and features one might expect from a city. Up until that point, I’d never been inside a Primark, let alone a Tiger for that matter. I should, I suppose, clarify that by “a tiger” I mean the shop kind, not the cuddly ball of fur and death that accompanies Pi in a lifeboat way out to sea.

Having found an all-day breakfast, and having eaten our fill, I finally got around to collecting my key. As it happened, move in day was on the same day as the start of the Six Nations Rugby. I found myself hanging an English Rugby flag out of my 2^nd story window. I thought that this might give me something to talk about with my new flat-mates. Maybe even bond over. There was only one small issue with this plan. Out of the 8 flat-mates that we had, 6 of them were Welsh. It’s a unique feeling hearing one of your downstairs flat-mates yell out “Which one of you’ve hung that flag out their window?” in a heavily accented welsh.

Whilst the level of work was somewhat of a culture shock, I felt that I had a close-enough group that it didn’t really matter. Whether we were playing Loo-Roll Jenga with my flat-mate’s 80 plus loo rolls he’d brought with him, or nervously waiting by our laptops to get that first grade, we did it as friends.

We worked, played, cried, and laughed. We consoled each other after relationship break ups, and we had arguments about who was drinking all the milk. We even managed to get our degrees completed, and had some fun doing it.

I created war torn nations, and struggling soldiers. Studied the intricacies of love, and complexities of modernism. I have suffered failures and enjoyed successes, all on a 56,000 word journey towards completion. I learnt how to write in a way I’d never thought about, with the support of people who knew what they were on about. Express myself in ways not previously considered. And after hard study, and dedicated typing, I was able to create a dissertation that I was truly proud of.

The experience of University is not one easily described. Put simply, it’s impossible leave the same as when you arrive. You’ll leave with cherished friends, and loving memories. Statistically, one in five of us will even meet the love of their life here. Whatever happens, whoever you meet, grasp university by the tail and don’t give up until you’ve gotten where you’re going.

Who knows? You might even learn something.