Are you set to graduate from university soon? Leaving university is a huge step and can be both exciting and unsettling. Leaving behind the comfort of campus and the close friendship bonds — not to mention the regular income of your student loan and graduating into adult life with all its trials and tribulations — can be a daunting prospect. But leaving university isn’t just about looking forward to the future. It’s also an opportunity to look back at the past few years of uni life and the unforgettable lessons and experiences you’ve garnered.
As students across the country gear up for the final few months of uni, bash out their dissertations and prep for final exams, I take a look at why all students should invest in a uni leavers’ hoodie as a way to celebrate their time, efforts and experiences during one of the most formative and challenging parts of life.
After all, a university leavers’ hoodie is far more than a souvenir. Like a timestamp, it pays a tangible homage to your important uni years and provides a token for the future that reminds you of the hard work, experiences and memories that armed you with the skills and tools necessary for graduating into adult life. It is a wearable symbol of you and the people and places that made you who you are. Not convinced? Here are four top reasons to get yourself a leavers’ hoodie.
To Honour All of Your Hard Work
Alongside the hijinks, the parties, the hours flopped out on the grass chatting with friends, university is an incredibly challenging time in your life. Not only is it academically rigorous, pushing you to think deeper, explore new concepts and develop more intricate insights into your field, it’s also an incredibly intense time of social change and development.
For most students, it will be the first time they’ve lived away from home or been without the comfort of childhood relationships. For some, it involves exploring a new part of the country — or the world — independently. It’s a space where you experience a series of “firsts” — some you’re no doubt proud of and others that are perhaps best left in the past. Of course, the ultimate goal of your degree is to get your degree certificate — to hear your name called out during the graduation ceremony and get those letters at the end of your name. But that’s not the whole picture — your degree certificate doesn’t attest to the other challenges and achievements that you’ve endured and made at university.
A leavers’ hoodie pays homage to your hard work and encapsulates the full breadth of work — social, academic and personal — that you have done in those incredible three or four years. It’s a tangible token of all of the hours of frantic library time, negotiating new relationships with new friends, plucking up the courage to voice your opinions in seminars and, of course, letting your hair down and dancing at a party without shame or embarrassment.
For the Pride You Feel for Your University
Think back to when you were first choosing which university you wanted to go to. The hours of listing pros and cons, the tentative uni tours with your mum in tow — while feeling like a complete fish out of water — the hours of deliberation, the constant stalking of UCAS to see whether you’ve got a conditional place, and finally, the joy you feel when you discover that you’ve achieved the right grades to meet your chosen uni’s criteria.
You and your university are bonded. It’s likely, as is the case for many, that it was the first major decision you made for yourself — one that played a huge role in deciding the kind of life you will go on to have. It’s the place that taught you valuable lessons about your chosen subject, where you met friends for life and where you learnt about independent living — it’s a place that ultimately shaped who you are today. Arguably, more so than most other places, your uni holds a huge amount of significance for you!
No matter where you go in your life or whatever path you choose, you will always be connected to that space and time. It’s an integral part of your identity. As you venture off into the scary world of work, you will no doubt miss that easy sense of belonging that university offered, so why not honour it? A leavers’ hoodie, emblazoned with your uni logo and proudly boasting its colours, is a wearable token that bonds you to that place and reminds you that wherever you’re in the world, you’ll always be a part of that uni community.
For Nostalgia
Oh, nostalgia — that tempting sensation that draws you into the past and holds you in its warm embrace. Like those hilariously posed primary school photos, your whacky GCSE result clippings and the endless tokens and photos of your teenage years that document things you’ve done and people you’ve met, the leavers’ hoodie is a nostalgic item.
Nostalgia feels so good because it helps us to connect to who we once were, who we once loved and the places and times that were special to us. The desire to connect ourselves to our past is as ancient as man’s earliest origins — from the cave paintings of our ancestors right through to the infamous “[insert name] woz ere” tags — there’s something deep within humankind that urges us to seek to tie ourselves to our pasts.
A leavers’ hoodie is a more elegant version of this same impulse — it says you “woz there” — and it was great!
Because They’re Comfy, Soft and Snuggly
The final reason that everyone should invest in a uni leavers’ hoodie is for its practicality. Unlike your graduation certificate or your Facebook photos, a leavers’ hoodie is something you can use and wear on a daily basis. It’s a wearable memento that provides you warmth and comfort just as much because of its fleecy insides as its powerful ability to recall memories and tie you to your past. And what’s better than curling up in a cosy hoodie?
A uni leavers’ hoodie is a rite of passage, a powerful token that packs a nostalgic punch. So get yours today before you leave and give yourself a gift that will keep giving.
Author bio: Robert Joyce is the managing director of personalised clothing company Yazzoo, which delivers high-quality screen printing and embroidery services at economy prices.
**This is a Guest Post.
