Categories: Uni Life

10 Things To Do Before You Finish University

As the end of another academic rapidly approaches, it will soon be time for many of you to finish University and move away from the city you’ve called home for the last few years. For me, this process was only last summer when I began boxing up my things to move back from Southampton, and I recall it now with a fond (and slightly painful) nostalgia as I think of the all the things I made sure I had done before I finished. Here’s 10 things you have to do before you finish University.

1) Thank your tutors

Showing gratitude towards the people who helped you get your degree should be a high priority. You don’t have to buy all of them a card or a gift and, if you’re really pushed for time, you don’t even have to do it face-to-face; even a simple email would suffice.

2) Walk around campus

The things you’ll miss once you finish University will really surprise you. For me, just being able to walk around campus, feel the atmosphere of all these students in one place and bumping into your friends is an irreplaceable feeling. Soak it in as much as you can.

And, whilst you’re there…

3) Go to the library

I told you, the things you’ll miss will surprise you. If you did it right, you’ll have spent so many hours in the library to the point where you should hate it. Go revel in those feelings one more time and you’ll see that actually, those painstaking hours will bring your nostalgia gland into overdrive.

4) Go back to your old halls

It seems nice to book-end your finishing University by going to the place where it really all started. Moving into halls was probably a life-changing experience, forcing you into an environment you had never been in before. You most likely learnt loads about living with people and living alone for the first time so, before you finish University, go and remind yourself what it was like when you got there originally.

5) Have a few pints at the SU bar

You’ll never buy a cheaper pint again, so you better make the most of it. I really miss simple nights out at the pub where 5 drinks and a pizza wouldn’t run you more than £20. Southampton also have a karaoke night on a Thursday, an evening of entertainment that I couldn’t miss more.

6) Go clubbing in the places you went in first year

Remember those early days when you would get plastered and go to terrible clubs? Get your friends together do that one more time too. By the time you’re at an age to finish University, your drinking ability is probably a little more limited, but it’s fun to do it all one more time.

7) Do that thing you always said you were going to do

I know this is ridiculously vague, but it makes perfect sense. If you said you were going to play laser tag in the city, go do that. Mini golf? Sure. Bowling? Yep. Jousting? Don’t push it. Either way, there will be an activity that you said you were going to do and you’ll only regret not giving it a go.

8) Walk around the city

Ridiculous again, but one of my fondest memories on my last day was getting the bus into the city and just walking around, looking at all of the things that became commonplace. You’ll also probably see the simplistic beauty in everything that you never really appreciated before. What I wouldn’t give to do that again.

9) Go back to the restaurant where you had that meal

There will be a meal you had in that city that you simply have to have again. Even if it’s the burger from the student café, go get it; you’ll never get to try it again.