By kitty fitzgerald, Third Year, Classics
Croft’s Magazine // Faced with the inevitability of impending graduation, Kitty Fitzgerald reflects on her undergraduate years at Bristol. Along the way, she discovers a deep love for the city she has learned to call home.
Are you ready? Everything is about to change.
Visit the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. Yes, you have a hard time drawing a stick figure, so you’ve always ruled out art, but the people you meet will allow you to see things differently. An exhibition may make you cry for the first time while looking at a painting, but friends will comfort you and remind you that this is its whole purpose.
Watch the sunset from the Suspension Bridge/Brandon Hill. Both are an uphill walk and cliché, but you’ll never forget the first time you saw the sun set over the Bristol hills and who you were with.
It finally happened, the duck-duck-goose of chasing life’s milestones is over and the race is over. University begins! But instead of dwelling on the anxiety-inducing worries and endless possibilities that lie ahead, here’s a list of things that will guide you through the next few years.
Try that sport/society you never got to do in school. Even if you mistakenly appear as a beginner in 1street & 2North Dakota Team trials with the wrong team for the sport, give it a try… At least you’ll get a funny story of your mishap and meet some nice people along the way to reminisce with. (NB: keep checking your emails for the next two years in case they forgot to select you for the 1st.street XI) Learn to cook, and I don’t mean master the art of toast… You’ll overcook (burn) countless meals because you’re petrified of food poisoning. But eventually, you’ll feel like sometimes know what you are doing and even come to enjoy it.
Discover local artists and hidden places in Bristol. Even if she never knew there was a country version of Kaiser Chief’s ‘Ruby’ (accompanied by an accordion and lots of ooh arr ooh arr ooh arrs), she experiences legendary Southwestern musicians while drenched in flying pints of cider. It is an experience like no other.
As you may have guessed, this is really a collection of my best memories while in Bristol. It serves as both a wish list for me from the past, who had no idea how much fun one could have, and a bittersweet reel to introduce myself to as I commemorate my time in college. I remember them both with a smile and the twinge of sadness that accompanies them.
Homesickness, pain and the pain of wanting to return home.
It took much less than three years for Bristol to become my home, an extension of who I am as a person and a place where I will always exist. I refuse to say goodbye.
College is now ending. But instead of dwelling on anxiety-inducing worries and the endless possibilities that lie ahead, the list reminds me of the joy that lies within the unknown and the unexpected. Some of my fondest memories are from when I was eighteen years old and was immersed in a whole new city and life, and I’m so glad I did. Three years later, it’s time to do this again.
I’m ready; everything is about to change.