I'm Glad.

Having recently graduated, and currently suffering PST (Post Student Trauma, of which classic symptoms are; not knowing what you're doing with your life, an overwhelming sense that you've achieved nothing by going to university and dull and everlasting dose of disorientation), I found myself, very surprisingly, beginning to have feelings of disdain towards the local student population. This is due to a number of reasons. But first, just to clarify, I decided to continue living in the city in which I studied because quite simply, I love it here, and it has become my home over the last three years.

So you can imagine my disappointment and disgust when, after arriving close to home after a particularly late shift at my weekend job, I find the main street absolutely covered in litter. And I mean, COVERED. Bins overflowing, litter-ally (see what I did there) EVERYWHERE. Mainly from the local takeaways, but a whole assortment of litter that looked that a bomb at the refuse collection centre had gone off. I am incredibly frustrated at myself for not taking a picture to get across the level of mess I'm talking about here. A few takeaway wrappers it was not.

After some time, disbelief gave way to curiosity. Was I this disrespectful/ adolescent as a student? Definitely not. What is it that makes people act with total disregard? I feel that its a result of a similar attitude to when Brits are abroad; 'not my home, someone else will clean it up.' And sure as can be, as I walked to the shop in the same area eight hours later, the streets were (almost) clean.

I'm not sure whether this would've bothered me two or three years ago, but it bothers me now because I hate to see people treat anywhere with such contempt, never mind where I live. But it unnerves me to think that these people; or mainly students as this is what makes up the majority of the local population; are tomorrows doctors, engineers, teachers, etc. These are the same people who will be running the country. God help us all.

But the main point of this blog is my realisation that the stigma attached to being a student is, in many cases, justified. I used to hate being tagged with all the classic student labels; lazy, bone idle, free-riding, complacent, apathetic... the list is endless. But many of them are true, and that should be a bitter pill to swallow for students, but it won't be. I'm glad I am no longer a student, and I thought I'd never say that.