The joys of the final term

As Shakespeare once said: ‘Love goes to love as a schoolboy from his books, but love from love, towards school with heavy looks’ – and indeed, towards school with heavy looks was what I was doing the last week of last term. All the tiresome business of looking after one’s own life, doing one’s own dishes, laundering one’s own clothes, running back and forth to uni once or twice a day and all the trials that come with actually having to learn stuff. By the time the Easter hols loomed I was about ready to drop. One last push of energy got me onto the train home, a long train home.

And then you blink, and the holidays are over, two weeks of waiting for the sun to burn through the northern sea mists (three days of solid fog!) only to have your one day of sunbathing interrupted by one of the merry sparrows in our hedge, pooping on my tanning legs. All the things we’d planned on doing whiled away on Netflix box-sets, instead of study or anything else remotely productive. And, all the while, the days tick by and the prospect of returning to our establishment grows larger and larger in our minds. But now we’re back! The sun is out, and with the right shoes even the commute to uni doesn’t seem as far at the moment (though I still want to throw a bucket of ice water over anyone walking in front of me, blowing smoke fumes back in my face).

So what are the joys of this final term? Using up every last bit of food, no matter how unsuitable for any particular meal, just so there’s less to carry home. Doing final revision and seeing the back of our exams, knowing that if you’re a first year, as long as you pass, you’ll be fine. Last nights out with friends you might not see for a good long while over the holidays, reminiscing all the weird stuff you’ve somehow ended up doing this year. Last days and nights in student halls, convenient though it is, fingers crossed for no more fire alarms next year! And sunshine! Blowing the cobwebs off our shorts and t-shirts and absorbing some vitamin D.

Heading home to a summer of working (hopefully) and being away from our friends and all the crazy stuff that happens in a town like Cambridge might not seem like that much to look forward to, even though we can’t help it, because there is a warm and snug sense of satisfaction that comes with packing a car full to bursting, closing a door for the last time and waving goodbye to a year well spent, even if it’s only for a short while – because, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ‘I’ll be back’!