Jenny Bathurst: “So to all fellow students preparing to run the final race...”

“As we all do, I feel that my life is sectioned into many segments that all seem to feel more significant in different moments and time periods. There is ‘Daughter’, ‘Girlfriend’, ‘Colleague’, ‘Friend’, and, but not for much longer, ‘Student’. Now this is not to say that I will never again darken the doors of an education institution whether it be for a Masters or beyond, however in the midst of writing my dissertation for my BA Journalism degree it doesn’t feel the most desirable of ventures. It seems that somehow the final stretch of university has been the hardest and the easiest of my time at the University of Brighton so far, and yet I refuse to believe that in less than one month I will no longer be answerable to a group of lecturers or the wrath of panic-submitting essays to Turnitin. (Phew.)

“Motivation when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel is somehow often the hardest to muster. You might think that the final push would be the easiest with the knowledge that this would be the last project before you can finally down tools, but there is something so challenging about knowing that you could give up now after the majority of the heavy lifting is done. It seems that my attitude towards my degree has gone this way. There is a certain pressure and panic of knowing that once I hit ‘submit’, the summary of these three years will be determined with a single grade that will forever sit on my CV and in the mouths of relatives when asked how ‘Jenny’s degree went’. I remember writing an article for this very column the morning of receiving my A Level grades, which seemed to have a similar sense of finality. Although those marks might have determined my university acceptance and arguably held more importance, there is something perhaps nostalgic and so final around knowing that this might be the last time I tear open an envelope or receive an email containing a number that I have put my blood, sweat and tears into earning.

“My university experience has been anything but what I was expecting, and somehow, with the strength of God and a lot of Dairy Milk, the finish line is oh so close. And maybe there lies my lack of motivation. The apprehension to accept that this challenging, bizarre and extraordinary phase of my life is nearly over and with that final submission point comes a new and unknown chapter. So to all fellow students preparing to run the final race and wait with bated breath for results - I feel you. It’s a sense of challenge, apprehension and relief - but somehow also: excitement.”