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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Does anyone miss being a student?

100 replies

Sammy900 · 09/09/2018 00:38

I know I'm not being unreasonable because I love being a mum ;p and I love my job, family life (stop me if I'm wrong) but I do miss it...

It's that time of year again, new pens, new folders :) new learning - my little one is experiencing this now which is awesome and it's her turn....

Aaah Uni - remember the procrastinating, the cramming, the not sleeping or eating properly for 3 days, living off coffee and fags to get an assignment finished. Not being able to even nip to the shop because essay time was critical at that point. My mum used to send me food parcels up in a taxi so I didn't have to leave the house sometimes (lucky)!

The relief when you finally got to the end and just had references to do so you could open the vino and play some music (at 4am), 50 research articles and books spread all over the floor.

Hallucinating or going numb from the lack of sleep required to do so ha...walk of shame at the end finally handing it in and zombie central on the way home- main aim BED!

I had a grand finale when I realized that I had 8 days to re-write my whole independent study as I had gone off on a tangent with two of the chapters - waaaahhhhh ...I also had a last minute binding breakdown when I accidently chopped my project up once

aaah those were the days

OP posts:

SagelyNodding · 09/09/2018 09:54

I'm about to go back-albeit part time! I start on Tuesday after graduating in 2005
This time at least I get paid to go there!

Planning to take things much more seriously than I did last time Good luck to others going back!

Amanduh · 09/09/2018 09:56

I miss uni and halls! Our halls were fab. To be fair mostly the ‘going out every night except Sundays’ rather than the studying but hey ho!

jay55 · 09/09/2018 10:01

No I like having money and not having shitty housemates.

IGiorni · 09/09/2018 10:05

Not even a little bit. I was bullied at school and most of my friends were a year or 2 older and left after GCSEs so 6th form was hellish for me. I’ve been a uni student for the last 3 years and it’s been so hard juggling that alongside working full time and being a mum. I do miss the student loan payments and my NUS card though 😁

EllenJanesthickerknickers · 09/09/2018 10:10

Some of it was wonderful, some if it was less so. My close friends were lovely but one of them found a new friend at the end of the first year and moved in with her. We were gutted. There was a bit of bullying. My heart was broken a couple of times.

But dropping my DS1 off in halls a couple of years ago! My god, I so wanted to stay, meet all the new people and be a student again. Always having someone to talk to, to be able to pop down to the bar any evening and find a friend there. The parties. Learning new and interesting stuff every day. Revising to music to block out the noise, nobody had headphones. Brilliant time.

OddestSock · 09/09/2018 10:12

I lovely bed university. I’d been a bit of a home bird before I went, but I was desperate for independence. My mum thought I’d last a few weeks at most, but it was the making of me.

I could do what I wanted, wen I wanted. I made some good friends when I arrived. I lived in a picturesque halls of residence in my first & 3rd year. I found my tribe.

There were some tough times, I had a bad split from a boyfriend at the start of my final year & I was very unhappy for weeks, I was self harming pretty badly, I suffered an eating disorder...but I was able to ha for these things in my own way without having to worry my parents were going to tell me that it wasn’t that big a deal & that I needed to pull myself out of it.

LifeBeginsNow · 09/09/2018 10:14

I miss watching Diagnosis Murder/ Murder She Wrote/etc during the afternoons and having a lazy nap.

FaFoutis · 09/09/2018 10:14

I accidentally went to a university open day yesterday (was working there), they all looked so unenthusiastic and bored dragging about with their parents in the big, fancy buildings. The students weren't even looking at each other. It's all so serious now and so profit driven.

Having said that, I'm a lecturer and still feel like I'm at university as regards no money and saying up all night to finish work. Secretly I quite like the staying up all night pressure bit.

vampirethriller · 09/09/2018 10:56

No not at all! I liked my subject but I didn't fit in anywhere. I hated school, I'm still glad I never have to go back and I left 20 years ago!

MrsMcRostiesHighlandScottische · 09/09/2018 11:08

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

TotHappy · 09/09/2018 11:30

I loved it, but I wasted it! I was at Oxford. Every term I'd have a look at the lecture list and star the ones that looked interesting (loads), world leading scholars, etc etc. Did I go? Did I hell. I think I went to a dozen lectures total in my whole three years there. What is wrong with younger me?
Wish I could have that chance again.

explodingkitten · 09/09/2018 11:39

Did all of you who loved it have money? Because in my case I didn't have any money for clubbing or a beer or anything. I ate plain spaghetti half of the time because I couldn't afford anything. I hated being so poor and was always scared that my shoes would fall apart. I remember that I once saved the equivalent of ten pounds (different country) in three months time and I was do happy that I had savings! Then they put up the rent... I was really unhappy worrying so much about money for simple stuff.

SnuggyBuggy · 09/09/2018 11:44

FaFoutis, I think it's sad that it's become more commercial. I also think it's sad that more people are going to university locally and living at home. Moving to a different part of the country, knowing no one and having to fend for myself was a brilliant learning experience. If going to uni locally becomes the norm it will be just like an extra 3 years at secondary school.

PeterRabbitt · 09/09/2018 11:47

I really miss it at Halloween. Loved being at uni and dressing up every night for a week! Now I'm just old and look like the walking dead on a daily basis unintentionally.

Original poster

Sammy900 · 09/09/2018 13:04

Haha PeterRabbitt

Lifebeginsnow I miss that too! I mostly went nocturnal which must be what I do when naturally left to my own circadian rhythm. I miss sleeping all morning then leisurely waking up to watch crappy TV and eating loads of food then thinking about getting ready to go out about 7/8 ...

tothappy nooooo all those interesting speakers!! Gutted for you

FaFoutis I think I secretly liked the pressure of panic swotting -it certainly worked for me! It was the only way I could be totally in flow - I couldn't do it in drips and drabs. I miss the sense of achievement from it too! I've probably been brainwashed to feel the reward from it over all the years of being an academic (I did 2 degrees) ...you do still get it sometimes from work - getting a promotion, swotting for an interview etc but it's not the same - I might have to set myself
a project and deadline haha

I bet some of the old Uni buildings are really beautiful..Oxford, Cambridge, Keele -Imagine studying in the libraries - both my Uni's weren't as pretty as some are

I have to say I am a little bit jealous of you guys starting Uni courses this term - hope you have an amazing time! It's different the second time round! I did my first degree at 20 moved far away from home - massive life learning curve at that age lived away from my home town for about 5 years then moved back (to my own place) got a job and realized about another career path I wanted to follow so went back to Uni for a second time but had full-time employment throughout!

I still met some nutters tho and had another brill social life on top ...still crammed my assignment work in at the very last minute, etc etc

OP posts:

SomeKnobend · 09/09/2018 13:09

No, I still have nightmares about deadlines and referencing!

soulrider · 09/09/2018 13:11

Not really, I had some good times at uni and made some lifelong friends but I don't yearn to go back. My overriding memory of my university years is having very little money and spending all of the holidays trying to earn more.

I'd quite happily go back to my sixth form years though, they were ace.

DieAntword · 09/09/2018 13:14

I don’t miss being who I was then because I was a cunt and a miserable one at that. I miss the freedom though. Youth is wasted on the young.

bananafish81 · 09/09/2018 13:20

Agree @PeterRabbitt, Halloween was ace

I remember spending ages making myself look like an actual corpse.

Best costume I remember was a mate who got some chicken wire and a shower curtain from the pound shop, then whacked it against some cheap mdf to create a mini shower cubicle, shoved the mdf in a rucksack so that he could actually WEAR the shower cubicle, and with a sprinkle of fake blood came dressed as the shower scene from Psycho!! It was amazing!

purplepandas · 09/09/2018 13:21

Don't miss uni at all and never fitted in. Hugely ironic given that work wise, I have done nothing other than work as an academic in a uni. Fit in now but didn't as an undergrad. In fact, can't think where else i would ever work! Think I just went to the wrong uni for me as an academic introvert.

bananafish81 · 09/09/2018 13:29

@TotHappy ditto. There was one term I didn't go to a single lecture

(I did an arts degree where lectures were kind of incidental - I found my work time was spent much more usefully in the library studying for the essay for the week's tutorial)

Though I do feel guilty whenever I see Niall Ferguson on telly for having fallen asleep in one of this lectures (which I did drag myself to, because he was Famous And That. Oops.)

BelfastSmile · 09/09/2018 13:33

YES! I loved student life - my room in halls, meeting friends from different backgrounds, as much library access as I wanted (I was a real nerd), lectures, homework's etc. I have a really happy memory of sitting doing a homework at my desk in my room in halls; the sun was shining in, and it was nice and warm, the radio was playing Eiffel 65, and I realised I was really, really happy.

Riotheparrott · 09/09/2018 14:38

trained to be a nurse so it was bloody long hours and hard work. I ended up taking too much on and being a counsellor to 2 girls with issues and it was awful. I'd never do that to my own detriment again.

HenryInTheTunnel · 09/09/2018 14:44

Yes and no!

I didn't like being a student in the same way I didn't like being single; because I wasn't sure if things were going to turn out OK for me in the end.

However, looking back on it there was loads I did enjoy and if I won the lottery I've decided I would just like to do part time degrees for fun. I like learning, I like research, I like libraries, i like getting feedback on something i've worked hard on.

I DO NOT miss the grim housesharing though! (not envy)

PoesyCherish · 09/09/2018 15:06

Me! So much so I enrolled on an OU module just so I could do the studenty things again (buying new pens, paper, enrolment, learning etc)

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