Can I just say this year has been one hell of a ride? I don’t know if it’s because I have lived in this town for all these years and known the people here with the uni and clubs etc. How ironic is it – to not want to leave when you feel you have finally settled in? I am graduating in July!

Is it life constantly tapping you on the shoulder to tell you not to get too comfortable? That there is another chapter, another face, another mountain to climb, another adventure to partake in? This year has passed so freaking fast, I can’t believe it.

I kept spending all day at uni doing work for my portfolio and taking breaks here and there. Going there midday and leaving midnight or the early hours of the morning. The room I spend most of the time in is so strange in the fact that time feels it is not moving and that helps when I’m doing work, just putting in headphones and focusing on what needs to be done.

The other day I was at a friend’s house at 7 and was almost done with my portfolio but decided to go and rest. I hung out with them, had a few beers and then left at midnight… guess where? UNI! I was sitting on this computer editing my documents and printing out 130 pages of my portfolio when a thought came to me. Three years ago, I was sitting on a computer a few seats down. It was the day of my submission of the portfolio and I was rushing to print out pages because I only had an hour or so and even forgot some certificates at home! I realized, three years later, there I was having it printed off three weeks in advance in the early hours of the morning. I realized how rewarding it is to sit down and get stuff done without excuses or anxiety.

I love how much I have come to enjoy this course, with all its peculiarities and difficulties. I love how I can talk to students in the years below me and advise or help them because I wish I had that when I was in their position. I wish I had someone to be like – hey, here’s a heads up this and this is good to know and can help you save time. But I realized, even if I didn’t.. it made me who I am. My life is a series of impressive academic achievements but then very poor decision making! It is quite funny actually.

The fact that I didn’t go straight to uni taught me a lot. The fact that I failed that year at uni for a module.. I wish it wasn’t so but what I did with my time that year is one of the reasons I hold myself with confidence/pride and probably why I got accepted in all the interviews I did for the job I am starting after graduation. It is why I feel nothing is impossible without hard work. 

In my interviews, I was not asked about my grades whatsoever – imagine! The fact of the matter is knowledge is power; my course is so diverse and has aspects of business, finance, psychology, mental health, public health, ethics, law, medicine, pharmacology, safeguarding adults and children, palliative care, nutrition, social care, pharmaceutics, physiology, chemistry and all sorts! However, we must remember to always learn. At the end of the day, people want someone who is flexible, willing to learn, honest, realistic and admits to mistakes. My course, among all things, has taught me about the strength in accepting your limits and recognizing your mistakes. It is not so much about the mistakes you make as much as it is about the way you deal with them. That is what I love.. it shows us our humanness and how to deal with cruelty.

When I was going through my CV for my application to my job, I had a moment where I thought ‘Wow, you really have done some great things in your life’. I used to participate in European Youth Parliament sessions, in film festivals, in artistic events, in school concerts, in summer camp. In Glasgow, I volunteered as a youth worker in an after school club, at a mental health ward and a Red Cross helper. In Huddersfield, I volunteered at the homeless/social center and I helped out at the theater where I watched shows and met lovely people. I remember my parents asking me if I was getting paid for volunteering so much because I wasn’t really balancing uni with extracurricular activities. 

I worked in a pharmacy, in a telephone center, in museums and events of all sorts, in college exams, in the university around campus. I really did do things here, even if there were times life felt it wasn’t changing or things weren’t exciting. The thing is, you don’t know how much you do every day which then accumulates to make something worthwhile. Even the small gestures we don’t remember, they contribute somewhere – a butterfly effect of some sort. The people I have met, the stories I have heard, the memories I have made – they have all taught me something and it has only been five years!

I can’t wait to start a new chapter in my life, to meet new people, travel more and make more great memories.

Copyright © M.E.S.