Yes, it’s that time of year again. The special week or so when we welcome all the fresh faces to university.
And thanks to the abundance of media outlets on campus, I’m sure you’ll read a hundred or so different columns all welcoming you to the city. So I’m not going to.
Instead I’m going to give a slightly different insight, for those of us who in just a few short months, will be leaving.
Coming to university opens doors to all sorts of possibilities. Will you join a society? Will you get a job? Will you dye your hair black and become a goth? Who knows, it’s all possible. One thing is for sure though; your time here will truly fly by.
Before you know it you’ll be standing in exactly the same position as me, just about to enter your final year, with the black clouds of the real world hanging mercilessly ahead, threatening to drown you at any moment.
It really is a scary position to be in. University is like a lovely big bubble when you first start. The real world seems to shrink away and you immerse yourself in all those things that make student hood seem so exciting. And whilst 3am trips to McDonalds are indeed exciting, they bear nothing to the feeling of having to get a proper job at the end of your degree.
Thanks to the ever increasing amount of graduates, who are all turned out of various institutions over the summer and expected to go off and contribute to society, there are fewer and fewer jobs out there for students.
This year I know of many people who simply couldn’t find a job when they graduated. So they went home, and carried on stacking shelves at the local Tescos, feverishly looking for a career in their spare time. That’s not really a position I want to be in.
Fortunately, and thanks to the miracle of work experience, I’ll hopefully have somewhere lined up ready to take me when the big day comes. But there’s always the possibility that I’ll be struck back down to the bottom of the employability ladder if it all falls through.
This isn’t meant to scare any of you out of coming to university. It’s the single best decision I ever made. But if you do see any third year students running around looking overly confused and worried, you’ll hopefully understand why.
So much hangs on the next few months. It’s the last opportunity to get some work done, and the last chance to enjoy the remnants of freedom before we have to take that first step into the real world. It’s not a prospect I’m particularly looking forward to.
For you first years, I’ll go ahead and say it anyway. Welcome to Lincoln and welcome to university. It’s going to be a blast. To everyone else, I merely wish you good luck.