The negatives to being a student

People think that students have it easy, and I admit that to some extent we do; our bank accounts automatically fill up 3 times a year, we only have on average 30 weeks of "full time" education a year. But it's not all fun and drinking games, there are downsides to being a student too, one of which is niggling away at most final year students right now.

Perhaps one of the worst parts of being a student is the stereotypes that we are expected to live up to, which lead people to class us as one inseperable lump of society; we sleep all day and don't do any work, we sponge off the government, we drink too much. Yes, some students live up to these stereotypes only to well, but they are in the minority. I spent 8 and a half hours in the library yesterday, and kept working even after I got home. Until last month, save 4 weeks I have consistently held at least one, usually two jobs in the 2 and a half years I have been at University, to avoid sponging off the government more than necessary, and I haven't touched alcohol since cerca 1972. So yes, having to put up with the jokes about how little work I do does become tedious. But that is not the main reason I am disliking being a student right now.

The main reason I am hating being a student right now is something commonly known as 'The Guilt'. This is the feeling that washes over you when, having spent 8,9,10 hours straight working, revising, etc., you pause, be it to watch TV, or even do the most mundane of things such as cooking dinner or putting some washing on. You feel guilty that you should dare to leave the chains of your desk behind even for one second. I hate that your work as a student is never done; there is always one more article you could read. And so it is that I find myself craving the freedom of a 9-5 job, one where once you clock out at 5 o'clock, your time is yours. Time to pursue a new hobby, spend time with friends, or even veg around doing nothing if you fancy it, without the guilt of knowing that you should be doing something. I'm not saying that I want to do a job like that forever; I'm aware that the magazine industry is a hard task master, with irregular, long hours, and when I come to that, I will be ready for it. But for a couple of months after I graduate, I will be (hopefully) enjoying the freedom time-restricted employment.