The end of our final term is here! (Hooray) and the only thing standing in our way of Graduation and those all important and dreaded exams is the Easter ‘holidays’!
What feels like a lifetime ago, we were once cute and carefree children with the world at our feet and apart from summer, the Easter holidays were the most exciting and wonderful thing to look forward too. Trips to the park, cinema, swimming, friends houses or even a family holiday were on our ‘to do’ list every year! Our friends would ask us what we did over the holidays and we would tell of our exciting tales to the park or the train ride we went on (or whatever you did, you get the picture!). Now however, the answer to that question is most likely going to be ‘work’. When we were young we wanted to grow up, but now, I think I speak for most people when I say I’d give anything to run back to them days and have no worries in the world.
Whether we like it or not, we are all grown up now and you could say third year holidays look slightly different to our primary and high school days! Let’s face it, they’re not even holidays! Coming home from University for a whole month is not only the time you wish you could just unwind and relax from the past few months but also the chance to catch up with our much missed friends and family. We will no doubt have the temptations of nights out, day trips and relaxing. It’s going to be hard staying focused with all the distractions being at home brings us, and the thoughts we will all be familiar with, ‘I will do this tomorrow’ or ‘If I just take an hour off I can go back to it’ will be running through our minds.
But what happens when it gets to the end of the holidays and you’ve not done as much work as you wanted? Those cheeky days off lounging around or going out will soon make you start feeling guilty and even more panicked, so it’s more important now than ever to stay focused; it will all be over soon! There are many third years who might take the opportunity to stay at university for an extra week or two whilst its quiet and students have gone home, which is probably a really good idea. If you’re like me however and get a little homesick or fed up of the place you’ve been working so hard in for the past ten weeks then going home is the only option!
Of course, it is impossible to revise day and night 24/7 for the whole of Easter and plans with friends and family will interrupt revision. It is definitely important to leave some time for fun and time off, but unfortunately, work is the biggest priority at this point and there are some moments where we will have to sacrifice some plans to stay in and get on with work. I know as a third year myself how hard everyone has worked over the past few years, and these final exams are so important because once they’re over there’s no going back!
Yes, third year is difficult and no, maybe we can’t enjoy all the free time like we use to however it will be worth it in the end (hopefully) when our friends and family are proudly watching us graduate! But for now it looks like this Easter break is going to be slightly more boring than when we were children, and a tough one!