It's really not healthy dwelling on the past, but seeing all these Facebook statuses and photos that are both cloying and enviable has made me rather sentimental. I have only just graduated and though three years have gone by as quickly as it came, it's not like I've been completely out of it. I can still relate. In fact, just last week NatWest sent me a Graduate Discount card through the post and a letter saying that they understand that coming off of higher education will always be an opportune moment to bury some student further in debt. See?
I do miss a few things from my past life as a Classicist-in-the-making, but surprisingly, not one relates to my course or alcohol-induced blackouts (I really do believe that unless you drink a case of Jagermeister and down a whole bottle of sleeping pills, 'blackouts' will forever remain as a petty cop-out to avoid dealing with the shame of last night's antics at the local Oceana.)
So here we go.
10. Academic S&M- I don't miss the cryptic tendencies of Plato and Heraclitus, but what I do crave every now and again is that bittersweet shot of stress over something scholastic, i.e. an essay due in 12 hours or a dissertation due for May that wasn't started until April. Nothing beats the high and low of having to write 2k+ words a day, only to cut it down to half, go to sleep and then write some more knowing in the back of your mind that this thesis can either take you up a grade boundary or completely erase you from the list of graduands come July. Obviously, things work differently outside that bubble and a career is on the line, but the truth is, sometimes I can't help but feel like I would rather go through the pain of final year again over my current day job.
