Graduated.

 Hello there! Those of you who have been avid readers may remember that I set up my blog as I drew to the end of my first year of University, and now, two years later, here we are and I have graduated. I can't quite believe that my time as a student has come to an end, as the last time I wasn't a student I was aged 3 and hadn't started going to Nursery. I can't quite remember what life was like then, so from here on out it all feels new! 

My time at Sheffield began in a 4th floor flat in the Ranmoor student village. It feels like a whole other life ago that I lived in this single room and shared a flat with 5 other fab girls. I loved living in halls, and if you're off to uni this year and will be living in halls I hope you have as fabulous a time as I did! I can't say that I miss the single bed life of trying to not fall off whilst Tom takes up the whole space, but I liked being able to have a shower without having to leave my room, and I LOVED the fact that we paid our bills within our rent price so that meant heating on all the time and a nice toasty room. 

 Living away from home let alone living with strangers was all very surreal, but I had a great bunch of flatmates who all got along with no flat drama (although a couple of them did have a flat prank war with the top flat which ended up with our flat being doused in flour/oil and spam in our lock) and by living with them I know I made some life-long friends. 

 Living in halls meant that you got to meet a lot of people, and arranging meet-up's was super easy because a. you had no contact time and not that much work to do and b. you lived within a maximum five minutes radius of everyone. I miss having all my friends so close by, especially now that some have left the country! 

 Before I knew it, first year was ending, I was packing up all my bits in my room (I have no idea how I fitted SO MUCH stuff in there) and moving it into my student house before returning home for the summer. 

 Second year was completely different to first, but still lots of fun. I went from living with 5 girls to living with 4 boys (one of which was Tom) which was a bit different, but a great experience (so great that we continued to live together in third year) and I was still having a blast and didn't want my student days to end and the thought of graduating terrified me. I still made sure to go out to lots of different events and travelled more outside of Sheffield to explore the area. 

 After a more intense year course-wise, second year finished and I only had a year to go! This time I spent most of my summer in Sheffield completing a research project and working in different departments and being able to enjoy myself here in the breaks between work showed how I definitely wanted to stay here post-graduation.

 Going back to uni after the summer was a bit strange as I had gotten used to being in Sheffield but not at uni and working, and I was starting to look forward to the day that I wouldn't have to write any more essays (and if I had to write a report it would be part of a job where I would be paid) and being able to read the books that I want to and they don't have to be 'of literary merit'. 

 I think out of my whole degree, my final year was my favourite. Looking back I absolutely loved being at uni, and I would do it all again if I could. By the time third year rolled around, I had more of an idea of what I wanted to do post-graduation, I had gotten used to the amount of work I needed to do for my course (to anyone in first year it gets a lot harder in second!), I felt at home in Sheffield and knew that I would be staying in the city once my degree finished. 

 Writing this post has made me all nostalgic for the last three years, and I wouldn't change anything about them. Going to university was scary yet exciting, and I know that the next part of my life is both of these so I look forward to what the future brings. To those of you still at university, enjoy every single moment of it, even when you're stuck in the midst of essay writing and have to write a total of 6000 words in two weeks time, it's all worth it and you might find that one day you'll look back on those moments and smile (more with the view of how on earth did I spend THAT LONG in the library). Enjoy all the times to come and be sure to take loads of photos of everything as you'll be able to look through them and re-live your time at uni again! 

 It will be strange to transition from full-time to student to a full-time job, but I look forward to seeing what comes my way and sharing it with you through my blog.

Love Jess xxx