Graduating during a global pandemic.

It’s as anti-climatic as it sounds.

The best time of your life. A place that you spend 3–4 years partying, worrying about work, and sometimes going to lectures. A place where you share life-changing experiences with your peers all striving towards a common goal, for it all to come to a sudden, spiritless end. Finishing university in a global pandemic was not only an anti-climax, but it was also a harsh reality that shows expectations are frivolous in a life that writes its own script.

When you start university as a nervous, fresh-faced adolescent, you have the expectations it will end like an American movie from the 90s, throwing your graduation hat in the air as the scene fades to black. By all means, this is not an unhealthy expectation to have, school education seemed to have gone smoothly, so why should this be any different?…

Up steps COVID-19 into the ring, an unexpected fighter that is taking on the world, and quite remarkably, holding their own. This is the biggest shock to a 90s movie since the Sixth Sense, a twist that deserves accolades, but it is your award of a degree that is under threat. Would the last four years of hard work come to a crumbling end… leaving an insufficient grade that would haunt you forever? Thankfully for me, and a lot of students I know, no, this is not the case. However, it was definitely an uncertain ride to get to that point.

Here in the UK when the virus started to become widespread, schools began to close, staying at home was advised and toilet roll was, well… gone. Final year university students such as myself, trying to complete the torment that is a dissertation, were starting to feel a bit left in the dark. There was no word from the university about whether the campus would close and we did not know how we would be able to adequately complete our studies at home, you know, with the world falling apart. There were ramblings in the library that an announcement would be made tomorrow… and then the next day… and then the next. Undertones of panic began to materialise, university officials were in the same position as the students, waiting for government guidance on the best way to move forward. Questions were arising quicker than answers and when the government advice FINALLY came in to shut campuses, some students were left stranded while others were having to pay rent for empty homes. The situation was resembling that of a sh*t show, but here a new challenge arose; maintaining focus to finish off what we started, getting this bloody degree.

Crunch time, the final straight, the last act… as you worried about the safety of your friends and family, the reality of a grade on a piece of paper was put into perspective as hunger for the superficial diminished. Albeit superficial, we live in a world where shallow tendencies are at the forefront, and no one, be it Jeff Bezos or Mahatma Gandhi, wants to waste £9,000 ($11,765) a year in student fees for a grade not worthy of their overall performance. This is where getting in the correct headspace was key and perhaps where the most progress needs to be made in funnelling the best advice for workers in the new work from homeworld. Help was given where possible, but in reality, every student had to be left to their own devices and environments to complete their degree. This obviously varied from person to person and there is no doubt some students struggled significantly more than others who had a calm working environment and did not have to worry about their budget laptop finally calling it a day.

Thankfully, universities across the country recognised this disparity and introduced a policy to address this. A ‘no-detriment’ policy that means as long as you pass your assessments after the COVID-19 outbreak, you can not get lower than your previously achieved average grade for that year, and can still improve. However, this disparity was again highlighted as it did not apply to all universities.

This policy was a huge weight off of every participating student's shoulders and was ultimately the correct decision … but, it did raise questions for the future on how the imbalance of personal circumstance can be addressed when on the face of it, all students are graded from the same criteria.

With the end in sight came hand-in day, the last hoorah that is meant to be followed with over the top celebration and one last play of the “I’m a student” card when making a complete and utter fool of yourself. This celebration, however, came to no avail and the reality of “now what?” came into the mind ever too soon. This sense of relief fused with terror was fast-tracked as the pending adulthood became a stale intermission as the world began to fix itself and get back to some sense of normal.

In this, what can only be described as a slow-moving queue, came a state of reflection.

The Result: Endings are over-rated.

The ending merely represents a piece of a much larger puzzle that becomes ritualised due to it being the last interaction we have with that experience. Yes, this sometimes leaves a bitter taste in the mouth **did someone say GoT** but the value of the whole journey cannot be understated. University was the best time of my life and made me the man I am today. I’m not afraid to say that it wasn’t the ending I’d hoped for, but that’s what made it all the more special.

Maybe this global pandemic deserves some thanks, it’s allowed me to put my expectations into perspective and to truly be more in the moment than ever before. Why focus on how an experience is going to end?…because if you’re living for the ending, well, you’re just not living at all.