Looking back at uni
 

Today my father drove me to Manchester and back to collect the stuff that I didn't take when I moved back here (my parents house, although I doubt I'll be here longer than the summer, but that's another thread for another day). It seems a good moment to look back on my three years at university and attempt to take stock of what I acheived and to question which experiences will be enduring in my memory.

I'll start with the obvious, my degree, and academia in general. I did enjoy university when I went in (which, I estimate, was about 20% of the time, with the vast majority of those times in the first term, I tailed off attendance to virtually nothing in the other two terms in all three years). I may have failed, I'm unsure as of yet and I won't know until the 3rd of July, if I don't fail I'll get a 2:2. This is because I have failed one of my units, so may fail altogether, but in the other five units I got at least a 2:2 with a 2:1 in 3 of them. This is just guesswork as I never actually got any work back due to poor attendance, but I'm reasonably confident of these facts.
I can't honestly say I'm happy about this, but I'm not particularly surprised either, it's been the pattern in my academic career throughout my life that for most of it I do pretty well with minimum effort and I screw up a part of it exceedingly badly. We'll see.

Now, onto more important stuff, life skills. I've become far better at cooking and cleaning and generally keeping myself alive, as would be expected I suppose. These are the things that will be with me throughout my entire life and uni has to take credit for being the first part of my life where it happened. I've also matured rather a lot, but can't say too much about this because by several kinds of standards I imagine I would still be looked upon as rather immature.

Enduring memories. Whilst clearing out my room today and flailing for memories inside my head for great times there it became clear to me that virtually all of my best memories from that period have been while going out. Drugs of course played a huge part in this and if I were to give a list of my "top 10 nights out in my life" I'm reasonably sure that they would feature in at least eight of them. Of course I'm not going to do that though because such a list would be really gay. Just as a point of interest for anyone who cares, I had never taken drugs of any kind before I went to university.
I did also have many fantastic nights out drinking, mostly in the first term of the first year and the whole of the second year. I haven't yet been able to recapture the spirit of these adventures, and perhaps I never will. Still, I'm glad I did it; or, to put it another way, I'm glad to have been a part of something so very very good :)

Another stand out point of university life for me was the amount of time I could afford to spend sitting in my room doing nothing (i.e: internet, go, reading) and getting stoned were huge. I doubt I will ever have the oppurtunity to lead such a lazy life again, which is sort of sad. However, it's probably for the best as, at the end of the day, those sorts of days don't leave me with much to show for them.

There is of course much much more to my time at university than this, but I firmly believe that these things are what will stay with me longer than anything else. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen, but right now I don't feel any remorse for having devoted my time there to, basically, hedonism.

So, this thread is for a) judging me, and b) your own versions of the above.

Have fun :)

Re: Looking back at uni
 

I failed my degree (well, I got a 2:2) without taking any illicit drugs.
Well, you're right on the free time (unless you're lucky). I don't really know what you mean by "much to show for them". I've worked for five years since my degree finished and I've got nothing (physical) to show for it either. I'd easily have traded them for five years sitting on my arse watching neighbours and eating sugar puff sandwhiches.

Re: Looking back at uni
 

Well OK, i don't have nothing to show for it. I acheived a decent level of skill at go, I read lots and lots of (very high quality) books, and I acheived whatever the hell it is we acheive when we do the internet "thing".

Re: Looking back at uni
 

i didnt fail college

Re: Looking back at uni
 

So, if I get this correctly, you're giving up and moving home?

[edit]
Me, myself, managed to finish my masters degree while I was getting drunk / high in Russia. However since my body is pretty much still ravaged from nothing I'm still completely ****ed. I have a job at my Uni, which I somehow manage to put in the needed 37.5 hours a week and most my freetime I spend wondering why my body is hurting so f*cking much, and wondering whether to dope myself down or not. So far, wine is the only painkiller I'm using regurarly.
[/edit]

Re: Looking back at uni
 

Well, don't be surprised if that's more than you achieve in the next two years of work is all I'm saying.

Re: Looking back at uni
 

I have no option but to move home, I ran out of money and furthermore, don't have anywhere to live in Manchester. I wouldn't say I'm giving up, but I am definitely moving home (temporarily).

Re: Looking back at uni
 

you told me you were moving back :(

Re: Looking back at uni
 

I am! I do apologise if I didn't make that clear. Manchester is still where I want to live (almost entirely because of friends).

Re: Looking back at uni
 

what happened to the place you were gonna move into?

Re: Looking back at uni
 

What about your grandfather and money?

In your last thread he seemed like a normal stand-up reasonable person.

Re: Looking back at uni
 

Oh that's just one big huge disaster. Just look upon it as dead, my best mate from the year who I was going to move in with got a job in Turkey and is currently over there selling houses, and the other people I didn't particularly like. That and like, money.

Re: Looking back at uni
 

He is, but I can't exactly ask him to pay my rent forever because I don't feel like getting a job.

(all these questions people are asking me are forcing me to make far too many posts in my own thread and appear a huge attention whore :( )

Re: Looking back at uni
 

Wasn't Deffeh the one with the grandfather and the money, or do you just all live very similar lives?

Re: Looking back at uni
 

He was now I think about it, I just happen to be in a similar situation.

Re: Looking back at uni
 

Have you checked? Maybe you and Deffeh are cousins.

Re: Looking back at uni
 

I've just moved back home too, with a 2:1 and no money.

I wasted two years at uni. In the first year I never got more than about five hours sleep a night due to playing Planetarion, and either missed lectures or turned up and promptly fell asleep. Accordingly, I didn't know anyone on my course. I never I mastered the art of catching a clandestine few minutes nap by sitting with my head in my hands as if in deep thought. The best things about the year were the weeks spent on Champ Man. networked in our flat and just generally larking about.
In my second year I vowed to ween myself off Planetarion. I ended up playing huge amounts of Planetside instead. I met a couple of similarly lethargic, bone-idle friends on my course. I ended up a mildly terrifying, Gollum-like figure, pale and moon-eyed, hunched at my computer day and night. Ashamedly, I still quite enjoyed myself.
Last year I finally shrugged off my computer's allure and worked a bit. Was a bit more focussed, read a lot, spent the requisite hours in the library and a few more. Met a lot of people, was almost a sociable animal. However, even after researching copiously I still managed to try and write 15,000 words in a week. Was a wreck, prone to breaking down and sobbing feebly. Post-exam period was really great, and pretty poignant.

University was really pretty cool. I enjoyed lazing about without needing to care about anything, and I actually enjoyed working when I got round to it. Independence does weird things for your self-knowledge. Made a few very good friends. Got excited by poetry. Went out and watched people disolve into (admittedly hilarious) drunken slobbering and found a pint of coke an admirable substitute for beer.

I've got to find a job or decide upon a postgrad course. Already feeling cloistered and bored at home.

Re: Looking back at uni
 

Ohhh.. I always seem to merge them into one person :/

Sorry Deffeh! .. or Deepflow... or whoever

Re: Looking back at uni
 

You could go back to graduate school and live the college life all over again! :/

Re: Looking back at uni
 

My country is cool because having a degree is all that matters and you might know shit, just the fact that you have that retangle paper with some signatures on mean youre something that should get the job.
The more of these papers you collect, the more money you make, even you if you are a dickhead. Then you get to be the boss.

My boss
=/

Re: Looking back at uni
 

That was the UK thirty years ago. Degrees are now two a penny and what really matters is who you know and how they can get you the job that you want.