Final Frontier Part 5

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‘These are the best days of your life’: how many times, as a student, have you heard that phrase?

Personally, I’ve lost count. And I’m beginning to find it a bit depressing. In fact, the next person who says it to me may well find a practice essay shoved down their throat. How can these be the best days of my life, when I’m spending them locked away in the library? Apparently we’ve had lovely weather recently, but I wouldn’t know – I’ve been trying to memorise everything my tutors have told me over the last three years.

Ok, ok, I know – the time I’m spending on revision for my finals isn’t exactly representative of my university experience as a whole. When I think back, it’s been fantastic. I’ve had bad days, of course: breaking up with my girlfriend, money worries, job worries… But overall, I have to admit that these have been ‘the best days of my life’ to date.

Yet that’s what really concerns me. If these are the best days of my life, doesn’t that mean it is all downhill from here? All the people who blithely tell me to make the most of my time at university (parents, friends of parents, mates of my older brother) have been out in the real world for quite some time now. Are they trying to say that post-student life is a massive disappointment? Is this as good as it gets?

Increasingly panicky – and yes, admittedly, also looking for a distraction from revision – I call my big brother. He’s out, obviously: it is mid-morning, so he’s at work. Oh God. That’s going to be me one day. I, too, will have to struggle out of bed early every morning, put on something smart, and sit in an office for hours and hours, with only 25 days holiday to look forward to (if I’m lucky), watching my life drain away. I mean, I could always go travelling for a year, assuming I somehow manage to earn enough cash over the summer, but that’s just delaying the inevitable. I’ll have to get a proper job one day, and then my life will be over.

Finally, big brother calls me back. Apparently he met some friends after work in Islington and they got stuck into some Mojitos in the sun. He’s surprisingly chatty and at first I can’t get a word in edgeways. In the middle of a long and complicated tale involving someone called ‘Tommo’ and an inflatable duck, I can take it no more.

‘Big Bro,’ I say – well, actually, I say his name, which is something far more sensible than ‘Big Bro’, but he doesn’t want to be identified on this blog – ‘I’m really worried. Is life after university really that bad?’ – or words to that effect.

‘Don’t be stupid. Of course not. It’s different, but you get used to it. I barely remember what it was like to be a student now.’

‘But Big Bro,’ I persist, ‘what about boring corporate life?’

‘It’s a bit of a shock to have to go to work in an office every morning,’ he admits. ‘But you get used to it pretty quickly, and it just means you appreciate your holidays more. Besides, you don’t have to work in an office – and if you do, it’s not for ever. Work is more flexible now. It depends on what you do. I’ve got quite a few mates who can work from home at least once a fortnight, and two girls I know have just gone freelance. You’re not going to be sold into indentured servitude, Little Bruv. If you don’t like your first job, you can do something else that suits you more. Anyway, it’s not like you’ll be able to afford to buy your own place any time soon, so you won’t have to worry about mortgage payments. And hey, maybe you can live at home with The Parentals and be a layabout for the rest of your life.’

And then he says something that surprises me.

‘You know what? Being in my twenties, living in a big city, having loads of new mates, having a bit of money for a change, finally getting some responsibility at work, not having to write essays… I’m probably having a better time than I had at uni.’

‘Really?’ I squeak.

‘Uni’s just like preparation. It’s the entrée. When you leave, that’s when your real life begins. That’s the main course.’

‘Did you just say entrée? When did you start saying entrée?’

‘Hush. Look, sometimes I have bad days – like last week, when my team got behind on a massive project and my boss was being a nightmare. But for all the bad days you have, you’ll probably have more good ones. There are always going to be Mojitos in the sun.’

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