Life After Graduation

  Life after Graduation can take a little while to adjust to. Becoming a graduate is weird, everything you've known for the past three years becomes an unrealistic blur, and I'm not sure I was prepared for what was to come. You have more money than you've had in the past three years, but with that comes more responsibility; what with jobs, cars and bills to pay. Not only do you have a challenging house market to contend with, you also have the challenge of finding a job that you feel happy within, and satisfies you.

 Thankfully, I managed to find mine pretty quickly so adjusting to Grad life has been smoother than I ever thought it would be! However, when I headed back to Canterbury last weekend, it made me miss uni more than I ever thought I would. I had the best night, reunited with all my friends, and it the reality that this is no longer a regular thing made me more grateful for the time we had together, but also sad about how much fun we used to have - especially in third year.

 Some of the things that have helped me adjust to this new lifestyle are things that I thought I would share, just to help anyone who's graduation is looming ahead of them, and they feel a bit unsure about their next chapter!

One / You will earn money, and it will be fantastic - you'll work hard for that money, which will ultimately make you feel even better than money that just sort of dropped into your account every term. It's a great feeling!

Two / Things will go wrong and you will have to spend that hard earned money on fixing your car/paying for your broken phone/ paying for something adulty - but that's OK, because next month you might save even more than you'd ever hoped which will help you sort these annoying things out in the future.

Three / University matures you, but working full time will add to that maturity - at Uni, you have meals to cook and clothes to clean with probably less lectures than hours at work. Going to work everyday makes you responsible for things that will have an impact on others, instead of just being responsible for yourself and your work at university

Four / You will miss the care-free days of uni, but appreciate the days you have off now even more - uni was great, I would work super hard in the mornings so I could bum around all afternoon, but now my days off are more limited, so I appreciate them more than I ever have before!

Five / Missing your old uni companions is inevitable, but working will bring you fantastic, new friends, and moving home will unite you with old friends too - this one might not apply for everyone because you and your uni friends might decide to stay in the same place, but for me (having moved home), I've been united with old friends, and made new ones too!

 Adjusting to the new lifestyle can be a challenge, but I just like to think of it as a new chapter in my lifestyle, and that's totally fine with me. University was fabulous, and I will have happy memories of it, but I was ready to grow up and get stuck into the World of Work as such. Hopefully, if you're about to become a graduation in the next couple of months, this may have helped you feel a bit more prepared for what's to come!

Are you a graduate? How did you find adjusting to grad life?

Canterbury | Elsie Mo's New York Diner

 I'd been pestering Dan for a good few months to decide on somewhere to go for his graduation, as I didn't want it to all be booked up. He was so undecided, until stumbling upon Elsie Mo's which is just off the main high street in Canterbury. Dan loves America, and we both knew that this would be the perfect place to celebrate his special day. Elsie Mo's is relatively new to Canterbury, after opening in August of last year. We were both very disappointed that it hadn't have been open whilst we were studying there, as we'd have liked to have been before. It definitely didn't disappoint!

We went quite early, as we were having another meal at 5 in the evening, so we didn't want to be eating too closely together. It wasn't busy when we first arrived, but quickly filled up. I'm pleased we arrived early though, because our lovely waitress gave us a tour of the whole place - it was huge, and we didn't even see upstairs! There were different themed areas around the restaurant which was really cool. Initially, it is very much so like a diner - with the traditional seats, and a car in there too which was cool. We sat in the section which was American Indian, and there were also superhero and diva sections which was cool. I really liked that there was the whole diner theme running throughout, but plenty of other bits to see too!

One of the really quirky bits about the place was the toilet. Yes, I'm really mentioning a restaurant toilet in a blog post! It was decorated with American newspaper cuttings, and famous American people such as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. But, the coolest bit of all was that they sink was made of an old barrel of beer, and you basically "pulled a pint" to turn the tap on!

So basically, the interior was great! The food however, was even better. There was so much choice which is always a good thing. You could have burgers or hot dogs or something traditional to different parts of America. They served things like three bean chilli, and Gumbo which I think made the place even better. When we go back, I'll be trying something more adventurous.

What we actually chose was "The MotherClucker" - a chicken based sharing platter. It says it's for two or more, but three of us shared it, and we even left with a doggy bag because there was that much! We got beans and coleslaw with chips, alongside 4 chicken wings, 4 drumsticks, 2 BBQ chicken breasts and a huge whole beer-can chicken. It was incredible. The only thing I would recommend is that if more than two of you are sharing, I'd order a portion of chips to go with it as I could have eaten a few more of them! The chicken was SO good. The wings were quite tangy, and the beer can chicken had such a distinct flavour, yet all of it was so tender despite it's differences.

 Elsie Mo's is a great addition to Canterbury. I'm already looking forward to my next visit, it's been done so nicely. I think they also do student nights (which makes me very sad) but the cocktails look great! If only I could go back and start uni again. The whole vibe of the place was great, and we were very well looked after by some fabulous staff.

Have you been to a diner in the UK?