On Friday I returned to Stoke on Trent, despite having graduated and interning in London, Stoke will always hold a special place in my heart. So many memories, friends and achievements happened because of going to Staffordshire University. Returning always gives me goosebumps, after getting the slow train up from London after work on Friday I couldn’t contain my excitement when pulling into the station.
Lots of people have friends in the third year or that have continued studying a masters, many graduates I know have returned to the area at some point. Freshers week saw lots of recent graduates return for a fix of one of the liveliest weeks of the year. I walked into the Ember lounge upon arrival to see so many familiar faces it was like we had just come back from the summer break and nothing had changed. This weekend wasn’t too much different, a group of my flat mates from my first year in halls and some of my course mates travelled to Stoke to spend Friday night in the mighty LRV and the rest of the weekend in the Ember Lounge or popping into Hanley. It was so great to see some of ‘my lads’ (pictured) I hadn’t seen some of them since graduation.
As Stoke is so central it is a great place to go for a catch up with everyone and is convenient as there is bound to be someone with a bit of floor space to crash on for the weekend. Someone asked me, ‘Why don’t you meet in London or Manchester etc. for the weekend?’. My answer was, not only because it is central but, if you go elsewhere you would have to pay for hotels and only see the people you invited, there is always a chance other people I met whilst at uni are also returning and it would be nice to bump into them unexpectedly. I saw a current third year student from the same course and just told them about my great experience in the industry so far and gave her a few pieces of advice, this for me is very important as that could really help her out.
Along with returning to the university area, I still haven’t dropped some of my uni habits, budgeting being the main one I still do as if I were a student. It is a great habit to have and will always be a useful life skill. I still use my trusty student discount card too!
