Final Year.
It’s daunting. It’s stressful. It’s in many ways, bittersweet.
It feels like the year has only just begun yet we’re in November, with a number of
deadlines beginning to pile up. On top of that, for people looking for graduate jobs,
application season is among us. Dissertations are expected to be underway as well
as course assignment deadlines coming up. It can feel completely overwhelming and
at times impossible, as if you stop swimming for a moment, you’ll drown.
It’s so easy to get swept away in the stress of it all that we forget that for many of us
this is the last year we have with our friends who we have survived the last three
years with. Friends who have been with us since first year, friends we have laughed
and cried with when things don’t go to plan and friends who have made our
university experience into what it is today.
For better or for worst it is the last time many of us will be in full time education. For
the majority of us we have endured a steady journey of one stage of education to
another fighting our way through the gradual progression from primary through to
sixth form. All of a sudden the structure of education and always knowing what to do
next is suddenly disappearing. We are expected to seamlessly glide from a life of
order and rules to the complete unknown. Embark on our professional career paths
and know the rules of networking and LinkedIn. Suddenly the coherence of a plan is
coming to an end and the cards are off the table- anything can happen. We are now
given the freedom to do largely whatever we want, and for many of us, without little
information of what that actually means or is.
It feels like a lot and can most definitely get overwhelming.
Whilst I’d like to think that there’s an easy fix and my uni life will last forever – there’s
not. Change is coming soon and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. In many ways I
won’t miss the stomach churning panic of assessment season approaching, I will
however always fondly remember living with my friends, going on late night Co-Op
trips to get a tub of Ben & Jerries and taking it too far at CRISIS.
I think at times of stress, and there are many during third year, I find it slightly more
bearable to remember this time is sacred. My time at university, the experiences I’ve
had and the friends I have made, have forever shaped me going forward in life. I’ve
learned, laughed, cried and lived for the first time independently.
There most definitely is a lot going on at the moment but remembering the simple
joys of simply just living down the hallway from your friends is irreplaceable. I like to
try and stop to think about these moments when it all feels too much. It doesn’t quite
take away all the stress of one online assessment and psychometric test after
another but instead reminds me to take the bad with the good. The stress isn’t
forever, and neither is my time here at Nottingham with some of my closest friends
and happiest memories.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a long way to go before I can toss my cap into the
air next summer, but I think sometimes its important to stop and appreciate a
moment before its gone.
The next chapter of life although daunting is also exciting and worth celebrating. Just
like the transition into university, plans may not always go our way, and we may be in
a new place having to make new friends, yet this shouldn’t deter us from the
opportunity to experience the unknown. I like to believe that things happen for a
reason and that everything will work out in the end.
But in the meantime, I think it’s important to stop every now and again to look at what
we currently have around us and how lucky we truly are even if we are up to our
necks in deadlines and debt, for we can do a late night study sesh with our friends.
Final year is undoubtedly overwhelming at times, but it’s also an incredible
opportunity to celebrate how much we’ve learned, how much we’ve grown, and how
much more we have yet to experience.