5 Thoughts On Finishing My Degree

Hi, my name is Martha and I have only flippin' gone and finished my degree! How the heck did that happen? It has been a long three years, but now I'm officially done and dusted I thought I'd share a few thoughts that I've had during my first few months of freedom...

1. I couldn't imagine what I would have spent the past three years doing, if I wasn't studying. To this day I'm not 100% sure on what I want to do as a job, but I'm glad that I  knuckled down and did something productive whilst trying to make up my mind! I know that university isn't for everybody (trust me, I chose the unconventional route myself) and I'm not saying that people should take on a shed load of student debt for the sheer hell of it, but I always enjoyed business studies at school and figured that it was a degree that could be of use no matter what direction I decide to take in the future.

2. Time management is a skill that should be cherished. Lucky for me I'm a serial planner, organiser, and list maker, but there were times than even my super-self (lol) wasn't sure how to deal with the challenges that were being thrown my way! My top tips for anybody starting a degree in September would be to get yourself a paper diary, some post it notes, and never start an assignment the day before its due... you may have been able to do it at school and college, but uni is a whole other ball game! If you want to do well, treat your work like it's your B-A-B-Y.

3. It isn't as easy as people make out, trust me! It's a common assumption that students spend their days twiddling their thumbs and their nights stumbling from one club to the next, and although more often than not this is the case, there's a lot more to it than piecing together assignments whilst eating spaghetti hoops straight out of the can... There are lectures to attend, books to read, more books to read and then there's the writing, plus the inevitable first, second and third proof read (to make sure you've spelt your own name right) before submission. Who said it wouldn't be exciting, eh?

4. On the flip side, it feels AMAZING to see the end result after hours of hard work. I couldn't begin guess how many hours I've spent sat at my laptop over the past three years (including the time spent cracking out a blog post or two!) but just as I had anticipated all along, the feeling of completion outweighs the feeling of exhaustion after pulling an all-nighter.

5. I think myself lucky that I got to share the past three years with somebody that I love. Anybody that has been reading my blog for a while will know that Jack and I started our degrees together back in 2015, and three years later we finished just weeks apart. Although we studied at different universities, its been reassuring having somebody by my side that knows exactly what I'm going through. We've proof-read each others assignments, listened one another other cry from sheer exhaustion (on my part that is!) and held each others hand every step of the way... lame, but so very true.