Keep Your Head Up

Opting to take a long, generally social-media free recovery period after my last exam, I am feeling far more refreshed and ready to reflect about my entire university experience. I don’t think it will hit me that it is over until I am strapped into that graduation gown. Yesterday my friends and I passed by De Montfort Hall and at the single mention of our pending graduation ceremony, there was an instant consensus that it will stay unmentioned until that day.

It is funny how it almost seems like a bad thing to mention graduation – how people stay away from it like it is the Voldemort of all conversation topics. Truthfully, I think the sadder connotations makes it a topic that is awkward for most final year students to approach. The idea that it is really, all over and if you’ve thoroughly enjoyed your time here as I have – then it’s best to delay that acceptance as much as possible.

Anyway, enough about the sad stuff! I am here to talk about summer! For those still doing exams, good luck, it will end and use the idea of freedom to get you through these final few hurdles!

Summer is always a hard one to plan. There are many weeks and they pass you by before you’ve even realised. If you’re lucky enough to have holidays and getaways planned, then it is somewhat easier as it gives you structure to plan around those weeks. Even then, you will still need to figure out events and hobbies to fill the gaps and it isn’t always easy. Luckily, I am here to pass along some ideas of how to fill one’s long summer – and there will be minimal academia mentioned, you’ll be delighted to know!

–

#1: Music festivals!

Summer is a time of music and mud. A lot of the big headline festivals have already started selling tickets so it’s best checking whether there are any still available if you want to attend. If you’re not the festival type, there are so many gigs on all the time and you finally have all the free time to attend them!

#2: Volunteering!

If you’re tired of spending time with yourself, then I highly recommend using that time and spending it to assist people in need. There are websites such as doit.org where you can search for any voluntary opportunities locally that you can get involved with and I can guarantee you will find something that suits your interest.

#3: Career Planning!

I am sneakily sneaking this one in. This one is for those weeks towards the end of summer where you are beginning to see adverts about stationery on TV. Even if it’s minimal and non-committal, taking a look at future graduate programme deadlines won’t hurt, right?

#4: Meeting up with friends!

This one is particularly applied for friends outside of university. All year you have been separated and this is the time to reconnect and spend time together. I am definitely the type to fall into the routine of spending most of my summer in front of a screen watching tennis, so it will be on my list to do more of this.

#5: Spend more time outdoors!

This seems obvious but I am poor at this. I am not a huge fan of the heat but it is healthy to do more outdoors activities and maybe try and watch tennis outside of a television screen. I am already seeing a lot of cheap outdoors toys like frisbees and water guns, so I bet those will be fun to do! Plus, we should take advantage of whenever the weather is nice and pleasant because autumn will sneak up on us before long.

–

There is more and I may do part 2 shortly! But for now, enjoy the pleasant weather, and I will leave you with this song which has gotten me through many exam seasons, post-exam seasons and long summers!