10 things I’ll miss about being a student

285736_514505705244967_163577496_nI’ve now been a student for around three quarters of my life and I cannot wait to be working and making money in the industry I’ve been studying for four years. But as I approach the end of my degree, I’m starting to get a bit nostalgic about how good it is to be a uni student. So here are 10 things that I’ll miss when I leave, and that new students should not take for granted.

 

1.    Student concessions

For whatever reason, society has deemed that we as students get a discount for a range of goods and service (you may start to notice a theme with this list btw). From public transport to electricity bills and from meals to movie tickets, there is a seemingly endless list of concessions out there if you’re cunning enough to find them. It is really going to suck having to pay full price like some kind of adult; which I clearly am not.

2.    Sleeping in

While it’s not always sunshine and rainbows (I’m looking at you 8:30 on a Monday classes), I think most students will agree when I say there are lots of sleep-ins to be had. I can remember that in year 12, some people had a spare period at the start of the day and didn’t have to rock up until after recess. The envy was unimaginable. But nowadays in good old university I have multiples of those a week, and some days, I don’t have to turn up at all! What a time to be alive.

3.    University services

With the danger of sounding like a walking billboard, the University has so many services that I’ve used over the years. Things such as the health, legal and careers services have been keeping my head above the water from the day one of uni.  And the best part is (you guessed it) that they are all free!

4.    Free BBQs

While we’re on the topic of me being cheap; how great is free food? You know it’s going to be a good day when you walk into uni and you can smell a BBQ cooking. Yes, you may have to wait for 15 minutes in the line, but that just makes it tastier when you finally get it.

No food

5.    Holidays

One thing that will most definitely be hard to come to terms with when I start working, is the lack of holidays. If you add up all the weeks (because that’s something a normal person would do….right?), the average student is only at uni for around 67% of the year. And this includes things like SWOTVAC, exam periods, “Lecture breaks” and O-week. That leaves 17 weeks every year to live it up on holidays.

6.    Student loans

I know that this isn’t the case for everyone, but for me, education is free; kindly donated by future me (Love that guy <3).

7.    Wearing whatever you want

I haven’t used this privilege as much as some other people wandering around campus, but hey, it’s nice to know that if I wanted to wear a onesie to a lecture, then I could. How many work places would be so lenient with what you wear? They all want you to be “respectable” and gross stuff like that.

8.    Learning

Laaaaaame, I know, but I really think I’ll miss it when I’m working. The reason I’ve been at uni for nearly 4 years is to learn new and interesting things. And while there has been some topics I’d rather forget, it has been a really great experience.

9.    The Freedom

I’ve had times over the last couple of years, where I’ve thought the two hours I was going to spend in an 8:30 lecture, could be better spent “studying” in bed. And so I did just that. I didn’t have to call anyone and I didn’t have to make apologies later. For the most part, you can do what you want at uni as long as it doesn’t affect anyone else. While this can be a double edged sword at times, I’ve really enjoyed having this freedom

10.    Friends

Yay friends! This one is pretty self-explanatory, but I’ve made some lifelong friends over the years. And while yes, I’ll still see these friends from time to time and yes, I’ll make friends at work; I’ll miss bumping into mates in the café, in class and while I’m studying in the library and don’t want to be disturbed.

Uni Friend

If I’ve forgotten anything important (or FREE) or if you’d like to share something you’ll miss about university, let me know in the comments 🙂

– Pat

 

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