Blogs editor Emily talks life after Leeds, and the pressure to have a spotless CV as soon as you leave campus.

“Yeah, but a year out isn’t going to look very good on your CV is it?”

Do you know how many times someone has looked at my CV and asked me about my silver D of E expedition? I doubt I need to answer that. Three days of backache and squashed naan breads in the bottom of my rucksack wasn’t as helpful as they said it would be, as it turns out. 

It’s March, and the reality of graduation is beginning to creep up on me (as is the dissertation deadline, but we won’t talk about that). 

As much as people like to joke about human geography and crayons, my degree has actually been an incredibly eye-opening three years. If you think I’ll end my time at Leeds – the last year of which has involved modules that cover in detail the fragility of life – thinking about what looks professional on a piece of paper, you’re going to be disappointed. And yes, that might sound irresponsible; an army of baby boomers might come after me with their “this generation is so careless” rhetoric. And, if they do, they’ll be kindly met with the middle finger. 

We’re living in an age where Donald Trump, one of the most powerful people on our planet, rejects the very concept that threatens its existence, and an age where people from all corners of the world are struggling every day to leave the location that threatens their own. I don’t claim to know everything – in fact, I’m first in line to admit that I know very little – but if there’s one thing I’ve learnt during my degree, and my three years at Leeds, it’s that life is precious. And I don’t intend on wasting any of it. 

So yes, taking a year out to find out what it’s like to be a proper adult, to pause and think about my future, and to spend three hundred and sixty five days giving a writing career a fair shot seems a little bit unlike what my parents, and my grandparents, chose to do. 

But times have changed, and the world is a different place to how it used to be. Okay, now I do sound like my Grandparents. I’ve been to hell and back with my mental health, screamed in protest for the things that I think should matter a lot more than some say they do (here’s looking at you, Trump), and learnt how to cook something other than pesto pasta. 

We’re a badass generation, and no matter what the baby boomers say, I’ve met so many people at university who are going to change the world. Whether that begins with a suit or an apron, moving home or moving on, post-grad life certainly isn’t going to revolve around a piece of paper. Silver D of E taught me that nothing is worth that.

Emily Merrill

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