To my fellow Her Campus girls and St Andrews peers,
A letter from the HC Editor-in-Chief (me!), containing a somewhat senseless reflection on Freshers Week:
As summer fades away, its last kiss pressed upon our sunny cheeks, and autumn begins to color our sky and leaves golden, it becomes easy to focus on ‘the next.’
To us third and fourth years, St Andrews begins to shed its novelty, and, in its place, an anticipation for ‘what’s to come’ begins to fester.
Strolls on the Scores are no longer a casual walk to class with friends but a momentary escape from the never ending drag of internship and job applications. The incessant crashing of the sea grows somewhat akin to our over-polluted inbox, each wave a reminder that your video assessment for Morgan Stanley is due tomorrow, remember!?
As our stress builds, the jewels of St Andrews we were once so fond of – seeing everyone you know on that brisk walk to Tesco – rapidly become this town’s most loathed drawback. And as you climb the library staircase up to the fourth floor, just catching your breath, you may find yourself thinking, “I can’t wait to never have to do this again.”
You can’t wait for the next thing: the next graduate scheme to open, the next apartment, the next city, the next season.
We live in a world overrun by a false sense of nostalgia, memorializing the moments we live in, as we grasp helplessly for a glimpse at the future: summer eulogies in July, Christmas decor in October. And so, I ask you to take my advice, advice I am desperately trying to take myself.
Although it sounds nauseatingly cliche, take September as it is, and treat St Andrews with the same care and eagerness that you once endowed it.
It is all too easy to become an automaton: wake up, library, Pret, library, sleep, repeat. But remember why you are here! Remember that you get to study a subject you (hopefully) enjoy, in one of the most charming places ever, surrounded by a sea of like minded individuals, and that things will not be this way forever.
Feel immense gratitude that one, very small town, can provide us with so much: an intellectual oasis, accessibility to our friends – at all times (!), the most beautiful beaches and foliage, balls, castle ruins, and then some.
Even I, as a decrepit fourth year student, still find myself taking pictures of West Sands and Sallies Quad every time the sun is shining. I’m unceasingly stunned by St Andrews – every sunset, every fallen leaf, every rain storm.
When deadlines pile, the sun retreats, and those glorious September days feel long gone and out of reach, remember the feelings of these past two weeks. The feeling of seeing St Andrews for the first time after summer break, as the cathedral peaks out in the horizon, a glorious declaration of St Andrew’s rich history and architectural allure. Remember the time you sat reading in St Mary’s quad (on a weekday!), soaking in the remarkably high UV (it was 3 at most, but alas).
As you live these moments – the choppy waters and overwhelming ebbs and flows that demarcate the start of term – take a moment to be still. To recognize that assignments, applications, and friend group qualms will pass. Take the struggles as a test of your ability to relax and enjoy the moment.
And for those of you who have been inspired to take a break, to take a reflective step back, I encourage you to find solace in our Her Campus community – a space and group devoted to the romanticism of the everyday.