I Finished University 2 Years Ago Nobody Freak Out.

This time last year I wrote a post on what I've learned since finishing university (with freakishly similar pictures, I really need to get some original ideas) and it said everything better than I could have if I'd written it today. 

There are a lot of third year bloggers graduating this year, I see you all, I'm excited for you, I'm excited to see your grad pics and I've got my fingers crossed you get the results you're hoping for <3 

Looking back on two years out of university finds me even more reflective than last year when it still seemed so fresh. I was back in Wrexham last week and when I'm there it feels like I never left but the thought of studying and being back in lectures and being taught seems so alien to me now. 

I wasn't really reading blogs all that much when I graduated, I think I'd just got hooked on Hannah Gale but that summer for me was really falling in love with bloggers and blogging, it just wasn't something I'd experienced before. And that got me thinking; what would I have liked to have read when I graduated from all the bloggers who'd already gone before me? 

So graduates of 2017, here's my little pearls of wisdom to you;

Dear Class of 2017,

Firstly, congratulations on your graduation, you slayed and you made it and hopefully your day will be glorious. Remember to pack your hair clips cos lord knows your cap will fall off and don't forget your flats in your handbag, nobody needs to trip in their heels walking along the stage. Take lots of photos of everyone you love, everyone you have memories with because university life is gone in a flash and these photos you'll frame and look back on and hold on to. 

Graduation feels like an anti climax. I'm sorry but it does. You've been waiting for this singular day all year, hell you've been thinking about it for the last 3+ years whilst you've been studying. You've been planning your outfit for months and the nerves have been jittering away over that walk but now it's done, the caps have been flung and you're left feeling like 'well what now?'

Most of us leave university and take a massive step back in our lives. We've just spent however many years living the high life, living away from home, living independently and now we're likely back in our childhood bedrooms surrounded by kitchen stuff we don't have a use for anymore. It can feel deflating it can - but we've all been there. 

More than any time in our lives I think now is the hardest part. Forget growing up as a teenager, forget being 18 and being so grown up yet still so much a child, forget that degree we just put ourselves through - now is the struggle. Now we suddenly understand why people say your twenties is a mishap, a mish mash of jobs and partners and life choices and no money. We're all just winging it and it feels like the most confusing head fuck. 

Most of us won't come out with a job lined up, most of us won't end up in a job relating to our degree. Most of us will be paying rent to our parents or trying to pay off a car or just living with that crippling debt that Student Finance gave us. And it's bloody terrifying. 

I've had this discussion with a lot of different groups of friends and for the most part people are in dead end jobs just because they need the cash whilst working toward what they want to do. Most people are living at home because lord knows a twenty something can't get on the housing ladder these days. Most people are being berated for not having done more, or why haven't we got a 'proper' job or why are we back with Mum and Dad? But life as a twenty something now isn't like it was a generation ago, we aren't married with 2.4 kids and the house in suburbia cos that just ain't realistic anymore. 

But.

We're all going through it, we've all been through it and let me tell you some of us are coming out of the other side. Turns out actually stuff eventually does fall into place, it just takes a bit of time. You will get yourself sorted out, you will be happy, you will look back on university as the best time, you'll fuss your way through the next few years and then suddenly - it's A Ok. 

Enjoy your graduation, don't panic, have the best time.