A Nostalgic Village Girl

Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time drowning in a tidal wave of emotions: sadness, anxiety, thankfulness, fear and pure delight. I remember, almost four years ago now, feeling somewhat the same way but I never found a term to express and describe it. Yesterday however, Robin Scherbatsky from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ shed light on this situation by using the term “graduation goggles.” As Barney would say, it was simply “legen-wait for it –dary!” Graduation goggles describes how just when something, like university is coming to an end, everything seems…rosy and perfect. The countless all nighters, constant swearing at lecturers and millions of times that the jubilee line has broken down on the way to Waterloo all start to fade. The images replacing those are of the laughs during long and lazy lunches in the canteen, the days of skipping lectures to lie in and then have a girly day out with shopping and ice cream and of course the idea that in a few months, you will, hopefully be graduating.

It’s intriguing watching how everyone is feeling the same way – emotional emails and Facebook statuses, camera flashes everywhere and a feeling of attachment between us all that has never been this strong. Coming from school where some classes only had six people to a lecture with over one hundred people was rather overwhelming. Despite this, in four years, I have gotten to know most people made friends that are practically the siblings I never had. I know that there are people that I can call at 3am, who will wake me up everyday so I can at least attempt to make a 9am lecture and that I know will still be in my life 10 years from now.

My mom always says to me, “it will pass.” No matter what context you use that phrase in, it’s always true. Nothing in life is constant, in fact change is the only constant. It’s always important to remember that the good, the bad, the ups and the downs will pass and when things are ending, the goggles will come on. The bad will all of a sudden look good and the good won’t seem all that good anymore. First year revision seems like a red velvet cupcake compared to this year while at the time, it was as though I was trying to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. I’m sure in one years time, a lot of us will be feeling similar emotions when we’re about the take our pre registration exam. Regardless, there is a lot for us all to look forward to as we take our first steps in to the reality of life: working and doing CPD, being responsible and of course developing ourselves as people.  In any case, when you look back from the end of the road, it’ll all seem almost insignificant compared to where you’re currently standing…