By Kitty Fitzgerald, Third Year, Classics
The Croft Magazine // Faced with the inevitability of impending graduation, Kitty Fitzgerald reflects on her undergraduate years spent at Bristol. Along the way, she unearths a deep love for the city she has learned to call home.
Are you ready? Everything is about to change.
Visit the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. Yes, you struggle to draw a stick man so you have always dismissed art, but the people you meet will allow you to see things differently. An exhibition may make you cry for the first time whilst looking at a painting, but friends will comfort you and remind you that that is its entire purpose.
Watch the sunset from the Suspension Bridge/Brandon Hill. Both are an uphill hike and a cliché, but you will never forget the first time you watched the sun sinking over Bristol’s hills and who you were with.
It’s finally happened, the duck-duck goose of chasing life’s milestones has ended, and the race is over. University is starting! But rather than dwell upon the anxiety-inducing concerns and infinite possibilities that lie ahead, here is a bucket list of things that will guide you through the next few years.
Try that sport/society that you could never do at school. Even if you mistakenly turn up as a beginner to 1st & 2nd team trials with the wrong kit for the sport, give it a go… You’ll at least get a funny story out of your mishap and meet nice people along the way to recall the memory with. (N.B - continue to check your emails for the next two years in case they did forget to select you for the 1st XI)Learn to cook, and I don’t mean master the art of toasties… You will overcook (burn) countless meals because you are petrified of food poisoning. But eventually, you will feel as though you sometimes know what you’re doing and even grow to enjoy it.
Discover local artists and Bristol’s hidden venues. Even if you never knew a country version of the Kaiser Chief’s ‘Ruby’ existed (accompanied by an accordion and plenty of ooh arr ooh arr ooh arrs), experience legendary Southwest musicians whilst getting drenched in flying pints of cider. It is an experience like no other.
As you may have guessed, this is really a collection of my fondest memories whilst at Bristol. It serves as both a bucket list for past me, who had no idea how much fun was to be had, and a bittersweet reel for present me as I commemorate my time at university. I remember these both with a smile and the accompanying pang of sadness.
Nostalgia, the ache and pain of wanting to return home.
It took far less than three years for Bristol to become home, an extension of who I am as a person and a place where I will always exist. I am reluctant to say goodbye.
University is now ending. But rather than dwell upon the anxiety-inducing concerns and infinite possibilities that lie ahead, the list reminds me of the joy that lies within the unknown and the unexpected. Some of my most cherished memories are due to eighteen-year-old me plunging myself into an entirely new city and life, and I am so glad that I did. Three years on, it is time to do this again.
I am ready; everything is about to change.
Featured Image by Emily Fromant
How have you found moving on from University? Let us know!
