A Farewell to Academia, Part 5: Goodbye to my student digs

It's occurred to me that, in about 36 hours, it'll be the end of an era.

I shouldn't be doing this. I should be continuing to pack all the boxes full of all my worldly possessions (at least, all the ones I have in Glasgow - I have loads more stuff back in Shetland) so that everything's ready for 10am on Sunday, when I have to leave (damn delivery guy charging extra for a Sunday callout, grumble). Presently I'm not liking having to negotiate with the brown packing tape, that stuff is a bitch to work with. Brittle as fuck and splits constantly. Trying to get an evenly-measured length to stick the boxes together with is difficult, to say the least.

But I'm reflecting on the four years I've lived in Glasgow so far. This is the third property I've ever lived in since moving to this city. I hadn't intended it to be this way, to be living in Dennistoun. I thought I'd be a west end girl. Perfect student area, right? True, it is. I love it. But due to monetary constraints I ended up here, in this abode. That said, Dennistoun's not too bad. Sure, it's in the east end, and as a naive country mouse moving here to come and study I was always told the east end of the city was a bad'un. And sure, the east end has its troubles, but so does everywhere and anywhere else. As I said, living here has been a-okay for me and I've enjoyed it. I've never had any trouble. Plus, when I properly got involved with the student union it turned out that a lot of the other folk from my uni lived here too, or the better off ones lived in the Merchant City. Very few of them lived in the west end or the south side (I could literally name two of my contacts off the top of my head who do). This was especially helpful when parties were to be had.

I've made a lot of good friends down here - I have more friends in Glasgow than I ever had living in Shetland. Down here I met people I genuinely connected with, people who could make intelligent conversation and who had the same feelings and opinions as me. I've changed a lot as a person since I moved here. I don't know if that's been for the better or not, I'll leave you to judge.

But as much as I'll miss uni (well, some things about it) and living here, I can't wait for the two months I'll be in the west end for. It'll be a nice change. I currently can't afford to live there permanently (although with any luck the job situation might just work out) but maybe by the time those two months are up I'll manage the south side, or perhaps come back to where I was. Moving out of here after two years will be hard, no question about it.

But at the same time, hopefully there are better things on the horizon. One thing I could do this summer is try and get another novel dreamt up and written. May be easier said than done, but it'll keep me busy as I try to remain afloat in life...