Top 5 Things I'll Miss About University - Part 2

Moving swiftly on from where I left off, we are at...


Number 3 - Basketball  
I've loved basketball since I first saw my dad play with some friends while I was still a kid. I loved it so much that, even during my exile from physical activity, I agreed to play in the singular match of the unbeaten Davenant Sixth Form Basketball Team, set up by Demos Averkiou. Although I quickly retreated back my life of distancing myself from the sports types of the world, I still remembered the simple pleasure of throwing a sphere through a cylinder and as I spent my time sitting in living rooms watching One Tree Hill, I never let myself forget how much I wanted to play again.

It was Gareth Barker who helped me bring it all together. He convinced me to book a court and after we spoke to our house-mates and sent a few Facebook messages, it actually happened, a collection of geeks played basketball and from the very first game it was something that I loved. Finally, after years of participating in team sports in this country with aggressive, testosterone driven douche bags, I could play an amazing sport with friends who were willing to have fun. Playing with friends also meant one other crucial factor, my own competitive nature which had led to problems in the past could be kept under control (most of the time, as long as someone didn't throw a ball at certain areas of my body with force). 

The other reason that playing again really made my last few months at uni different was that it was nice to remember that, when I'm not surrounded by people I hate, I'm actually not the worst athlete in the world. I wish we had started earlier and had more time for it, but all of it will be a truly great memory to take from uni, and the thing on this list I most look forward to doing again when I visit my friends who are still there.


Number 2 - Game Soc + No Wave
 I loved societies at Surrey and its only recently that I really figured out why. I thought about all the things I loved about uni, and all the people I'll miss now I'm gone and I realised that they all came one of these two places. Either Game Soc or No Wave, the alternative music society, provided me with every friend and every night I enjoyed while in Guildford. Except for the gym, every item on this list came about because of these societies and, with only one notable exception, every girl I met and horrendously messed things up with while in Surrey came from these places too.

I spent three years as the secretary of Game Soc, a position that didn't require a whole lot after the first few months of being elected, and had more of an on again/off again relationship with the ever changing No Wave but I will be eternally grateful to both societies for giving me the friends, the stories, and even the name that I have taken from them. I'm going to miss the pure escapism that is found in DnD and I'll miss the opportunities to DJ at alternative nights at the university,  but more than that I'll miss the people who made the societies great and hope that they both manage to survive long after I have left.


Number 1 - Milhouse
I hugely doubt that this will be a surprise to anyone who has known me over the last year, but there really could be no other end to this list. For those that don't know, Milhouse is the house I lived in for my final year, and if the societies above are what gave me the greatest things about university, this house was the result of that. I got the chance to live with four (basically five) guys who just made everything fun.

Milhouse at our greatest party.

Between Brian Fraser, Alex Dale, Tom Pritchard, Richard Vickerstaff and the sixth member, Gareth Barker I loved everything about the house. From the parties we threw to the trips to friend's houses and our final, awesome, trip to Alton Towers, everything just worked. But in all honesty, the best thing about the house was that I could spend a night in there, just watching Buffy or Arrested Development and playing Mario Kart and it would be as fun as any night where I would've had to spend stupid amounts of money, go outside, or at least get out of my stretchy pants.

Milhouse at Alton Towers.

The in jokes, rules and traditions that we created within that house will stay with me forever, and I do really believe that I will still be friends with these guys when I am old and sitting on a front porch. I have an image of sitting in my house as an old man on a Sunday afternoon and one of these guys walking in and taking their tops of with a declaration that it is Topless Sunday.

I'll stop soon as I don't want to bore you with how much the house meant to me but I just want to make one last point to show how much I will miss it. From knowing me, or reading what I write, it isn't hard to work out what is the most important thing to me, the friends that have been with me for years. I went to university with a pretty bad mind state that I didn't need anyone else, because I had such incredible friends at home, however all of that went out of the window when the guys of Milhouse showed me that I can find incredible friends anywhere, and it will be my life long goal to steal them to London and have them join my front porch plan.

So, thank you to all five other members of Milhouse, as well as the people in stayed in our house so much and helped make it great, such as Travis Wren and Rosh Sellehewa. It's you guys who gave me what I will miss most about university. You put up with my whining and argumentative nature and made my final year everything I had wanted university to be. Milhouse is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life, and I will always miss the happiness I found in that decrepit old house.



Well, there it is. That's what I'll miss now that I've come home and am getting on with life. I know I'll go back and visit a lot, but it is good to feel as though things are moving somewhere. The next blog is going to be the first of the, out dated, argument type ones and will be called something along the lines of Britain Wanted No Alternative To Whining.