Reflections

Standing around the kitchen in my new postgraduate house, I join in the conversation my housemates are having about the student nights at Royal Holloway. Two of them did their undergraduate degrees here whilst myself and the other housemate didn’t. “I guess your SU doesn’t have to compete with other clubs around here because there aren’t any,” I say with a laugh.

Alex turns to me. “You can’t say that anymore, Darcy,” he says in good humour. “It’s our SU now.”

Two weeks ago I moved my life down to Surrey to continue the next stage of my education by doing a Master’s at Royal Holloway. In those two weeks, I’ve oscillated wildly between feeling like this was the best decision, to being convinced that this might be the worst decision I’ve ever made. In the long term, and on my better days, I know that here is where I need to be. The people on my course and in my house are great, and commuting into London every week for class is great fun.

Plus the opportunities down here are just incomparable. On the tube I saw an advert for Body Worlds which is returning to exhibit in London. Even just the simplicity of being able to get excited to see it because I’m here is something I love. I can so easily book a ticket and even just go by myself. Honestly, I’m buzzing. (Anyone wanna come see dead bodies with me?)

I’ll write more on this at some point, but leaving the University of Lincoln was difficult. It felt like a really awful break up. And I still miss it so much. I was so lucky to have spent the best three years of my life there. Harder still was going to a new university and feeling like a wide-eyed first year all over again.

Slowly but surely I’m adjusting. And things feel more familiar by the day.

It’s raining today and it makes me feel at home. I’m sat with a mug of black coffee using my window sill as a desk with the huge window itself thrown wide open. It’s nice to feel the cool air on my face with my fingers wrapped around a hot coffee cup.

There wasn’t much of a point to this post. But I want to get writing on here again and I’m hungover so I’m in a bit of a melancholic mood.

But Alex is right. It’s our university and our SU now. Maybe Royal Holloway will never feel completely like home to me. And that’s okay. For now, it’s where I need to be.