Yes, there is a beyond.
Right now, for some of you it may feel like Cambridge is an endpoint; a goal, an accomplishment, your future. It certainly felt like that for me. But now here I stand as a graduate with my academic life behind me, and I have realised that Cambridge is just a beginning.
It’s a beginning for so much of your life. It’s a place where some of your strongest friendships will develop, a time where you’ll discover new hobbies and joys in life, and learn how to live away from home.
Because it’s just a beginnning, university is not the be-all and end-all. I got a 2.1 instead of a first; sure it stung at the time but now I’ve accepted it and moved on. That grade may seem like all you have to show for three years of hard, hard work, but actually it’s everything I have done at university, of which work is only one of many aspects, that is important. My time at Cambridge is so much more than a 2.1 can express.
So as I step out into ‘the real world’, I’m filled with a sense of sadness at the end of my unviersity life, but I’m also feeling positive about everything that is to come. I’ve got a new job, a new location, a couple of new (younger!) housemates, and life is looking pretty exciting. I feel a bit like I did when I first arrived at Cambridge three years ago – nervous, sad and excited all at the same time. It was an end of an era, but the start of a new one. And now here I am, back at a new beginning all over again.
I can’t wait to find out what lies in store …