Things to be thankful for at the end of Week 6

It’s time to eventually reverse the Week 5 blues

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After Week 5 we all seemed to be just a little fed up of the same old Cambridge routine, but Week 6 has been a time to be thankful for everything that we enjoy and overlook about being Cambridge students.

After 5 weeks of horror, it only makes sense to list the 5 things that we all love about doing a Cambridge degree.

Cambridge is beautiful

Week 5 was a time for me to criticise the ugliness and unsightliness of some of Cambridge’s outdated and often backward institutions, but Week 6 was the time to take our surroundings at face value and just enjoy them. Because looking outside your window is definitely a better alternative to facing the work that remains within.

Cambridge is unlike many other cities in that its university is the main focus. Although Cambridge’s institutions can often feel extremely closed off to students and our voices, having unlimited access (apart from Trinity, of course) to some of the city’s most beautiful buildings is certainly a reason to be thankful. Walking to lectures and suddenly finding yourself in a guided tour for tourists really makes you realise how beautiful the city is.

Trinity: the only thing guarded heavier than Fort Knox

If nothing else, looking around the room with confusion during a completely horrendous supervision is made much more pleasurable when the room is among some of the oldest in the country.

The family atmosphere

We all know that university is a difficult thing to get used to and settle into, and especially so at Cambridge. Although one thing to be thankful for at Cambridge is the way that everyone eventually settles into what feels like a second family, albeit incestuous and dysfunctional. The collegiate system definitely has its disadvantages but, in the spirit of being thankful, it’s nice to see them as safe spaces within the intimidating label that is ‘University of Cambridge’.

Live by the squad, die by the squad

Having an entire college family is something you don’t normally find at a lot of other universities, and it truly makes the idea of university being a ‘home away from home’ a reality. Because when you need a good rant with your parents and they’re not here, you can be thankful that you’ve always got your college family to pick up the pieces. The very very many pieces.

Forever remaining a child

Cambridge could probably be summed up quite well by comparing it to Neverland: a magical place completely isolated from the realities of everyday life, and where growing up and maturing is an impossible feat. Depending on your view, this is definitely something to be thankful for when you definitely don’t feel ready to take the leap into the horrors of adult life.

Having college parents, a bedder who cleans up after you in a way your own parents would not, catering staff who make sure you never have to cook for yourself and feeling like you have the intellectual capacity of a three-year-old in supervisions all add up to render you a helpless infant protected only by the outer walls of the Cambridge bubble. Love it or hate it, be thankful that if you’re not expected to act like a functioning adult, then you don’t really have to try to.

Self-esteem boost

You’re a student at Cambridge. Just let those words sink in and you should be feeling thankful pretty quickly. Although it’s difficult to fully appreciate it in between running from lecture to lecture and trying to simultaneously juggle all of your essay deadlines, studying at one of the best universities in the world is something to be thankful for.

Whether it be using your prestigious Cambridge email address or flashing your CAMcard at the King’s great gate, being a Cambridge student is a big boost to self-esteem. So don’t let imposter syndrome or Week 5 make you feel like you shouldn’t be here – you’ve earned every bit of it!

It’s Week 6

Perhaps the biggest thing to be thankful for during Week 6 is the very fact that we’re already 6 weeks into term. Whether you’re excited to just retreat into bed and not have to wake up for 9am hell, or whether the little time you have left makes you appreciate what you have, it’s something to be thankful for.

You know Cambridge goes fast when you’ve already been married 3 times

Although sometimes it feels like term can’t finish quickly enough, other times it feels like everything is going too fast.

Cambridge is the perfect place to be thankful – just a simple walk to lectures can make you forget the torment that lies before you. And even when your lectures and supervisions feel too much, the end is nearly here. But just be careful when wishing it would all just go away.