Beginning your last year of university can be overwhelming, daunting and scary – but you are not alone if feeling this way. Amrit, a Third Year English student here at Nottingham, comments on the pressures of finishing your studies, and the intimidating notion of leaving university.
Being a final year student brings with it feelings of both excitement and uncertainty. Knowing that the world will imminently be your oyster is thrilling – but when you don’t know what to do with this newfound freedom, it is daunting to say the least.
It wasn’t until I started my third year this September that I realised just how much pressure it would be. With it being my final year, I wanted to make the most of joining societies and getting involved in things other than my degree. I have no regrets about this, but I must admit that getting in a routine and learning to manage everything took a few weeks to adjust to. While I do enjoy all the extracurriculars I have taken on, I must admit that I did feel compelled to jump into a lot of them straight away to perfect my CV and make myself ‘employable’.
The world of work is intimidating and scary to start conquering. With stories of graduate unemployment in the COVID-19 era being higher than ever and industries struggling in navigating these uncertain times, post-university planning is something which I (and many others) avoid thinking about too much. But avoiding the subject won’t be any help – I have found the University’s Careers and Employability Service to be extremely useful in helping me figure out what steps to take on my journey towards the postgrad world. Attending workshops and presentations including expertise from employers in a variety of sectors is also massively beneficial in your search to try and find what on earth you want to specialise in.
Another thing which I don’t think is spoken about enough is losing the security of the university lifestyle. In the academic bubble, you have your day-to-day activities and routines defined by the structure of your seminars and deadlines, and your friends are merely a stone’s throw away from you, with your social lives seemingly being able to perfectly pair up. But what happens when the diss is done and the mortarboard is thrown in the air? While keeping in touch with those we love is easier than ever in the modern age, it’s inevitable that it’s harder to do when you don’t see each other everyday. I will miss the familiarity of knowing those in the same boat as you are just around the corner, but I am equally as excited to see what everyone will do in the future with their careers!
To all the final years out there reading this, it is normal to feel lost and, quite frankly, scared for what life entails after graduation. If you don’t know what to do, you have time to figure it out, and there are people out there who are happy to help you. And most of all, think of the future with excitement, not dread, and make the most of your remaining time at University!