Throw your hats in the air like you just don't care

"I think I'm quite ready for another adventure." 

It was early May when I finished University and headed home with a car full of my belongings, then proceeded to start an awful job the next day and spend about two weeks slowly unpacking all of my stuff. It was the end of an amazing three years but it didn't feel like the end, it felt like a limbo state that I was existing but still not quite existing. Now, back in Crawley after three years living in Chichester studying English and Creative writing, it all came to an end on Monday 6th November 2017. I officially graduated and it was the perfect end to my time in Chichester. I think it is universally accepted that the prospect of graduation is something that is extremely exciting but equally as terrifying when you're an ex-student (not being a student anymore makes me extremely sad). As a prementioned sufferer of anxiety, I was quite worked up on the actual day of graduation but there is nothing quite like the feeling of walking across that stage when your name is called, even when you're an extremely anxious person. It's exhilarating even if I was focused on not falling up the steps on my way up the stage. It's therapeutic. It's truly the best end to a degree. It's not until the moment that you've walked across the stage and been handed your degree in an envelope with your name on that you realise that the past three years were leading up to this, like a roller coaster slowly approaching the top of the tracks before the drop. The drop is you're now completely free from University. You are no longer a student, you are an adult - though, you were always an adult they just never really noticed when you were a student. 

Now, in the words of Bilbo Baggins, "I think I'm quite ready for another adventure." 

I know there were a few metaphors in there, some would say too many, I would say that there were too many but I'm an English student and have to put my degree to use somewhere. Now, the next adventure is unclear but it's not something to worry about. If being at university has taught me anything, it's that being anxious about things I can't always control is useless and it's something I need to work on. There was absolutely no need for me to be so concerned about my graduation ceremony, everything was clearly marked out and me worrying about it just affected me, nobody else. I've learnt so much about myself in the past three years and that's something I wouldn't change for the world. Now, as a graduate, I can say firmly that everybody I've met at University has helped to support and shape me in some way whether staff, friends or strangers. I am extremely grateful to everybody that has supported me over the past few years. There is no feeling akin to that of your friends and family being there to cheer you on when you walk across the stage with heavy robes and a hat with a tassel on. It's a moment that I will treasure for the rest of my life. 

Thank you so much to everybody that was there with me physically or took the time to send a message congratulating me. I couldn't have done it without you. 

I'm going to follow this with a post of spam of photography from the actual day. 

Once again, thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and read this post. 

Tiffani. x