Goodbye tan lines, hello deadlines: why the next few months feel so overwhelming

How is it October already?

Four weeks ago my biggest worry was the price of an Aperol and what the UV was going to be that day. Now it feels like I’ve blinked and gone from a life without any structure to starting my final autumn term at Bristol.

Soon it’ll be dark by the time you leave your 5pm seminar, cocktails will have been swapped for £5 Gail’s coffees you buy to bribe yourself into studying, and small talk will go from “how was your summer?” to “so what are you doing your diss on?”.

You can already feel the term slipping through your fingers, and because it’s your last year, you’re painfully aware of every week going by.

The balancing act from hell

Final year comes with a weird kind of pressure to make everything count. You don’t want to miss anything, so you end up saying yes to everything, which gets exhausting very quickly.

The cruel irony of third year is that for most of us, it’s the year that matters the most academically, and the year you’d most rather be with your friends than in the library.

You’ve got a dissertation to start preparing for and deadlines that are actually important, and then there’s a voice in your head – or more likely your housemate – telling you to just come to WG for one.

Honestly, I’d say go. You’ll probably doom-scroll for the hour you could’ve been at the pub anyway. Seeing your friends for a couple of hours is a better form of procrastination.

So you spend the whole term trying to do both, going straight from the library to the pub, squeezing work in between plans and hoping you’ll somehow catch up on sleep in December.

‘So, what are you doing after?’

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And then there’s the dreaded question. You’ll hear it from friends and relatives, from your housemate’s parents, from a stranger in the Daisies’ smoking area at 2AM. “So what’s the plan after uni?”

Some of us know. Lots of us don’t. And final year has a funny way of making it feel like everyone else has it sorted.

Some of your friends aren’t even here this year. They’re on their year abroad, posting from Paris or South Korea, and they’ll be back for fourth year when you’re gone. Others will have grad schemes lined up to go straight into work. Some want a second gap year to put off the 9-5. And some of us are just trying to get through the next deadline before thinking about any of it.

The reality hits that this is the last year you and your friends will all be in the same place, doing the same thing.

And then you open LinkedIn.

Suddenly, everyone you vaguely knew in first year is “thrilled to announce” a new role or internship at a company you’ve never heard of, and you’re sat in your bedroom wondering if you’ve done anything with your life at all.

How I’m coping (sort of)

I definitely haven’t got it all figured out, but a few things have made this term feel more manageable.

Talk to people – If I’m ever sat in my bedroom alone, that’s usually when my mind starts going to places it doesn’t need to. Call a friend from home, text your mum, or just go upstairs and chat to a housemate. Sometimes speaking to someone can make everything feel a little less overwhelming almost instantly.

Enjoy the boring stuff – Not every memory has to be a huge night out or event. Some of my favourite memories are from somebody’s bedroom on a random Tuesday evening. Studying with friends, cooking together, turning the mundane stuff into part of your uni experience. It’s cliché, but romanticising the small things really does make a difference.

I don’t really have a neat answer. I’m stressed, I’m tired, and I’m also having the best time. I think that’s just what third year is.