"Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life which is yours to lead" - Nora Ephron

Last year I waved goodbye to university and embarked on the next part of my life. With graduations occurring from throughout the year, it can often come at quite a shock when you leave the university bubble you've been living in for the past 3 years or longer. Just before I graduated last summer I wrote the post 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before University in which I discussed the things I wish somebody had told me. Now I'm going to share with you the things I've learnt in my year as a graduate.

1. Working life isn't all it's cracked up to be

I was so excited to start working and earning my own money...how naive I was. Sure I love my job and I'm lucky to work from home but I miss the days of waking up at midday, having one lecture and then getting the rest of the day to do whatever my heart desires. Let's also not forget the fact that you no longer get a summer or easter holidays or reading weeks.

2. University friends aren't for life

People that I used to be super close to during my years at university I've not heard a peep from since graduating...there's a couple that I talk to every now and then, but none that I'd drop everything and go rushing to.

3. You finally get over freshers flu

I swear I came down with freshers flu during my first year and it wasn't until I'd been graduated at least 6 months that I finally started to get over it. Now just over a year later I'm feeling a lot more human.

4. Silence is weirdly loud

Where I lived on campus all 3 years of university there was always some kind of noise. Whether it was people just going about day to day lives - or late night parties that I wish would calm down so this grandma could sleep. Now I find sitting in silence extremely weird. I NEED to have some kind of background noise - even to fall asleep I normally stick something on Netflix or Youtube.

5. It's easy to forget to drink water

As I'm writing this I'm chugging from a 1.5l bottle of water because I've forgotten to drink any water again today. It seems like now I'm not constantly hungover or dancing then I'm forgetting that water even exists. Let's just say my skin hasn't been truly happy for over a year.

6. You'll never pay off your student debt

I studied in London for 3 years - so while I'm not going to share exactly much debt I'm in. Let's just say unless I become a millionaire I'll never pay it off. Which makes me feel slightly better about not actually using my degree.

7.You will miss education

I love learning, I've been out of education for just over a year now and I'm hoping to go back and start my masters this time next year. I love learning and might as well make the most of it while I'm still young and don't have to worry about a mortgage or having to look after children. As much as I used to get annoyed at uni - I loved constantly developing my knowledge both inside and outside of the classroom.

8.You have to get new hobbies

Remember when you joined 10,000 societies and a sports club? Wave goodbye to those. I was part of my uni's rowing club and while I have a couple of rowing clubs nearby - they're not quite the same. I've had to develop new hobbies since leaving uni and discovered I really enjoy painting, reading again and even going for the odd cycle round my town.

9.Gym memberships are expensive

I used to think that paying £99 for a gym membership for 9 months was outrageous - now I'm paying £26 a month! Plus I have to walk 20 minutes to get to the gym now opposed to 2 minutes. I wish I'd take advantage of how cheap the gym was instead of spending that money on unnecessary purchases including alcohol.  

photography

All photos within this post were taken by Alex on my Olympus Pen E-PL7 with 45mm lens in natural lighting. They were then edited on Lightroom CC.

post disclaimer

I use affiliate links via RewardStyle within my posts. This means that whenever a sale is made via my blog, I will make a small amount of commission. This doesn't cost you anything your affect you in anyway.