Every stage of your friends graduating from uni

Maybe you got dragged into a friend group in the year above due to a sport or a society. Maybe you failed a year, or started off doing a foundation course. Either way with the end of the academic year looming you’re having to deal with the only thing scarier than graduating – being left behind.

Have you got your dissertation done yet? Sorted out your graduation gown? Arranged for your family to come, teary eyed, to your graduation? Of course you haven’t, you’re not graduating yet. But all your friends have.

It’s a difficult process, coming to terms with the fact that everyone you know will be going off into the world while you’re still stuck in a particularly wet corner of West Wales.

The Denial

You’ve known it was coming but have actively tried to avoid thinking about it the entire year.

You’ve politely nodded when they’ve complained about their dissertation as if you could relate, avoided talking about post-uni life with them and maybe even brought up what you’ll do next Halloween or Superteams as if they’ll be here.

But they won’t. They’ll be getting started with the next chapter of their life, whilst you’re still in Aberystwyth.

The Mad FOMO

It’s only natural that knowing your friends will be leaving soon, you’ll be wanting to spend some quality time with them. Every party they throw  you’ll be there as one of the drunkest in the room. Every beach bbq or coffee trip you’ll be there.

While everyone else is setting out to relive their first year so they still can live the student life, you’ll be there enjoying every minute of it. But this extends to the people on the periphery of your friend group that you wouldn’t normally care about. You haven’t spoken to Jake’s housemate’s Boyfriend since that house warming bbq back in September, but here you are at a house party telling him how much of a lad he is and how you should have spent more time with him.

You’re never going to talk to him after he graduates, and you’ll probably just be embarrassed by that whole drunken conversation.

Bye buddy

The Desperate Planning

Okay so you’ve finally accepted that people are leaving. That doesn’t mean that you can’t party together next year right? You’ll go to their place in London for their 22nd, and they’ll come back to Aberystwyth for Halloween. It’ll be great, you’ll get the gang back together!

Somewhere in the back of your mind you know this isn’t going to happen.

The Jealousy

It’s horrible of you and you know it, but you don’t want to hear anymore about the plans they have after uni.

Every time you hear about Jeff and his fancy grad job, or Hannah’s Masters in Manchester you cringe a little bit, as it’s just another reminder that you’re not going anywhere. It’s not that you don’t want them to succeed, it’s just that you just want a break from the whole graduation thing.

Finally Moving On

No matter what you do or what plans you make, your friends are graduating and you’re not. Eventually you have to come to terms with it and start actually planning what you’ll be doing next year. Maybe this means finding a new group of mates if your’s has been particularly torn apart by graduation, or maybe you’re lucky enough to have a good few people still here.

Either way it’s time you give your mates a pat on the back and get over the fact they’re leaving.