I went back to my old university at the weekend. It was about 9 years since I had last visited and 19 (💀) since I turned up as a Fresher. There was an Old Boys football match, and a few of us from my time there were turning up.

The day was both totally nostalgic and oddly foreign. The uni is split in colleges, and my college bar (good old Trev) was still there, in the same layout. There were 9 college bars when I was running around, but on a Saturday we could only find 2 that were open in the evening.

Campus was really quiet, there was no hustle and bustle of students in fancy dress, wine taped to their hands or hanging out in big groups. But when you think that everything they do has the potential to be filmed and appear on social media (we didn’t get a Facebook profile until 2007) maybe it starts to make sense. It seems like rising fees, the cost of living crisis, and the pandemic have stripped away a recognisable part of student life—the social scene I loved and thrived on. I hope they’re still able to have fun.

It was great to reminisce and catch up with my friends, there was a lot of laughter and old stories retold. We’re all basically the same people with added experiences and responsibilities, but it was nice to slightly regress. Knowing that we’re now double the age of those attending classes is quite an unsettling reminder that time doesn’t stop and if anything, it feels like it’s speeding up.

A deserted university square the morning after the night before.