So I gave in my dissertation 156 days ago, I received my results 88 days ago, I graduated 74 days ago and I've just finished my twelfth week at my big grown up job. I've lost count of exactly how many weeks I've lived with my boyfriend's parents now, 4 months is an estimate. Time's gone pretty quickly over the past few months, the summer always flies by, but I don't really have a summer anymore. 

I've been up and down when it comes to my feelings towards being a post-graduate. Today marks around 3 years since I myself moved into Hawthorns M Block at Keele and began my student adventure, and that's hit me harder than expected. I think the summer was easy because university still felt like it was around the corner, even though it wasn't. I knew it wasn't really coming but it felt so far away that it didn't really matter. But now that I've finished 3 months of work at my no longer so new job and one of my closest friends from uni has returned without us to complete her final year, I feel that same deflation I felt when I handed over my dissertation, when I finished my very last lecture, when I stepped out of the door of my university house of two years.

The fact is, living with parents makes the transition so much harder in my opinion. If you move straight out into the big wide world, you've got to deal with it. You have to pay your bills and cook your meals. Returning home makes it easy for parents to unintentionally treat you like the child you once were, and it's easy to feel like the house you live in isn't your home. In the case of living with my boyfriend's parents, it really isn't my home anyway. As welcome as they make me I don't feel like this is or will ever by my home, and the boyfriend and I both desperately want a place of our own.

I think that's the only thing that'll make my transition easier. I don't feel at ease when I return home from work, and I think this passing month is probably going to be the hardest for me of all. Another close friend has just started university from day 1, and she's updating me about all the nights out and antics of hungover lectures already and a part of me really does pine for it. 

Four months down the line all I feel is a pull between student life and adult life - neither of which I truly have, but my adult life is something I'm trying hard to work towards. My hope is that once we're up and out the parental home we can actually kick start our life properly. I want to move on from being a student, but when it was so much more fun than being an adult who's not quite yet allowed to be an adult, it's a challenge to let go.

My one wish is that we can all manage to find enjoyment in adult life, despite how horrible everyone told us it was going to be. By no means do I dislike being a grown up, I just don't like not quite being allowed to actually be one when I'm at the same time expected to be - that's the only way I can describe the hotel of mum and dad - if it even makes sense? 

MissIsGoode

As much as so many of us desire, we cannot remain students forever. And now the official end to my student days has been and gone, it is time the official end to my student lifestyle blog that has followed me throughout my three years at Keele also came to an end. I started this blog inspired by my sister, who runs CupcakeMumma. It became a sort of public diary for me in the run up to university and it really did help me feel so much more prepared. My relationship at the time was on the rocks, friendships were beginning to drift and I was working long hours to save up money so writing about the preparations I was making for university really distracted me from everything and put my nerves at ease. 

Here's a throwback to my first ever blog post here at Life and Times of a Student. I ended my first post on Friday 31st August 2012 with: 'So, Goodbye summer. Hello University - well in 23 days that is. Look forward to hearing from the life and times of a student!'. When I actually got to university I really didn't jump straight back into blogging, instead I jumped straight into partying and the wild side of university - my blog reawakened at the start of October with a blog post reflecting on Freshers' Week and this actually became a theme on my blog over my three at university.

University made me feel more confused than ever at times; sometimes I wasn't sure what I was doing there, other times I felt like it was the place I'd been looking for. Whilst I honestly believe university isn't the place for everyone, I know it was the place for me. No, I didn't always act as sensibly as I should have done, yes I did have too many jeagerbombs and no I don't know how my liver, or anyone of my friends livers' for that matter, are still going and yes I could have worked just that little bit harder. Truly, none of that matters. I got out of university a lot more than I anticipated. I'm a much more confident person, I found some truly amazing friends who I'd happily move in with again and really can't imagine my life without now and I found my boyfriend, who I've now settled very happily in with. As cheesy as it sounds, I found myself at university and I stopped trying so hard to please other people, I stopped trying to fit in to groups I never belonged in and I learnt to simply be myself. It doesn't matter how cheesy it does sound really, because it's the truth for many other people too. 

I quite literally take my hat of to Keele University and everything that applying, attending and graduating from it did for me.

Speaking of taking my hat off: last week was graduation week at Keele and as I said, my blog is graduating because I have! I spent 3 nights in a cute little cottage in Kingsley which was about half an hour away from Keele with my boyfriend and my parents. It was nice to spend some time with them and obviously, quite simply see them! Now I've moved over 300 miles away for good, it's quite a rare occaision.

My boyfriend's ceremony was the first of all the graduations at Keele. He studied Pharmacy and graduated with a 2:1 MPharm degree. Here he is in a sea of hats!

The weather was pouring down on the day of his graduation so we barely got the chance to take any photos and when we did they weren't particularly good. Out came his dad's 5 year old camera (I honestly believe it's about 15 years old!). I put my faith in his dad and hoped he would capture some nice photos and put my phone away for the day, and wow how I regret that! We got a few, none of them particularly flattering of the two of us though!

The week before graduation I had completed my first week of work and Michael had driven me there everyday, hence the bags beneath our eyes! I'm glad we look half decent though...

My graduation was the following day, an early start again with a 10:15 ceremony, but it was so nice to catch up with my friends. I managed to see Faye the day before at her boyfriend's graduation (she's doing a four year course) and on the day of mine, I graduated alongside two of my English Lit pals.

I have to say how disappointed I was that we didn't get a free lunch after our graduation like my boyfriend did. Because his course is pharmacy he's entitled to more funding, and me a mere humanities student is not allowed the privileged of free lunch. I also felt my whole day was a little more rushed than his. Everyone was tired - especially my brother who had come straight off a 10 hour shift to attend my graduation (dedication) and still scrubbed up better than I had done the day before!

Keele really does have a good back drop for graduation photographs! Fortunately there was less rain on my graduation day, though whilst taking all these photos there were some drops of rain. I'm really upset we didn't get more on the day of Michael's graduation, as it really is a once in lifetime opportunity - unless you do another degree or continue onto masters etc! But still...once in a lifetime if you have no ambitious to do however many more years of studying!

Here's a slightly better photo of us together! My only wish is that we looked as well slept and happy on his day too. Michael managed to take so many photos of my day which I'm so grateful for!

I bought a beautiful dress from Lipsy - it was £58 and tighter than dresses I'd usually wear, but graduation called for something special and the colours of it were beautiful! It was more summery than the weather, and my shoes were probably more summery than any weather we've had in England!

The actual ceremony put me to sleep a little. I'd been up at almost 6am for the past 10 days and the ceremony is quite a quiet atmosphere. There were long speeches that were interesting, but I'd heard them all the day before at Michael's graduation! When it came to my row to begin formation for our handshake I felt extremely nervous. Who hasn't imagined falling flat on their face!? I'd picked up some new tights a few days before and they'd made my shoes slip off all morning, I felt like disaster was on the horizon.

As it came to my turn all I could think of besides falling over was how they were going to say my last name. On most occaisions anyone who says my name to call me over for something pronounces it 'Good-ie' but let me tell you all that the 'e' on the end of Goode is silent...thankfully they knew that too.

After my name was announced I extended my hand to meet that of the chancellor of Keele, John Porritt. He said 'Well done, Isobelle' to which I replied politely 'Thank you' then from him another really sincere and reassuring 'Well done' came, to which I then responded in blind panic 'Cheers'.

How elegant of me. The main thing is, I didn't fall over.




Here's a slightly better look at my dress and shoes! The shoes were from Debenhams and I didn't care how flowery I was, I wanted to be summer personified for the day!

I hope everyone else who graduated all over the country last week had an amazing time, and whether your graduation has been or is yet to come I hope it was/is an incredible day for you. And maybe you'll be lucky enough to receive a free lunch unlike me!

I may be saying a big goodbye to student life and my student lifestyle blog but as you can see, my blog isn't going anywhere. The only change that's truly happened here isn't the design, it's the fact that I can no longer blog as a student, but it won't stop me blogging about student life. So past, present and future students, don't forget to stop by the blog of MissIsGoode for all the tips, advice and adventures you found on Life and Times of a Student - and hopefully so much more. 

If there's one thing I've never really understood, it's tablets. I'm a big fan of the old pen and paper, or failing that just a simple laptop. At university I was satisfied with a book rather than a kindle, and a well designed, sturdy notebook with good quality paper rather than a tablet to tap away on. But in fact, I can really see the benefits of having a tablet at university.

I was recently sent ASUS's brand new Zenpad 8.0 and after playing on it for quite a while during my first evening of receiving it, it peaked my interest. I thought about how convenient it would have been to have a tablet whilst I was in lectures. I could have typed up all my notes there and then rather than having to stack up old notebooks, unorgranised random pieces of paper and folder after folder. Whilst a pen and paper is still, and will always be, a favourite of mine - the Zenpad makes sense.

Now I'm no technology expert so you won't be getting a technologically informed review. Just as I have always done with similar products I've shared on this here blog, I'm not going to pretend I know what I'm talking about, this is a layman's review!

So, setting up was so quick and easy. With everything at hand like your Wi-Fi password and your serial number you can easily set your tablet up in a couple of minutes. There's plenty already on the ZenPad to get your started such as google docs in which you can tap up work on the go without an internet connection - useful for commuters or for journeys back home in the holidays. You can create notepads and to do lists, and can link your Kindle account and even your PC to the ZenPad. There's plenty of Apps you can add to your tablet too - one of the most useful ones I've been using on my tablet is Hootsuite. I tried to connect this up on my phone but just couldn't get along with it - the tablet makes it a lot easier to use! It also comes with ASUS WebStorage which is a useful place to upload any notes and access on your computer.

Getting used to typing on the ZenPad is a bit of a struggle. I've written up a fair few blog posts on it now, including this one. But I don't yet feel confident enough to compose and post it straight from the ZenPad. Instead, whilst watching TV I get typing away on the tablet and then edit the posts on my laptop. It's a little tricky to get your cursor in the correct place on some occasions, but there are things that have been done to try and make it easier.

For example when on a webpage if you click on a link or within a part of the text it will zoom in and open up something like the screenshot to the left in order for you to be precise with where you're clicking. This comes in really handy when blogging - it also makes up for the small screen size. I like working using things like blogger on a browser as opposed to the app and this makes it just that little bit easier to use!

My favourite part of the ZenPad has to be it's design. I find it sleek and professional. The cases are interchangeable and I was sent both the white and the silver case that you can see in the images above. I find the white case makes it an aesthetically pleasing product but the silver is pushing on the tacky side in my opinion - but that's a personal preference more than anything! As you can see in the top photo it's a slim product, weighing only 317g and not even a cm in width. In fact it's about the same thickness as my iPhone 5c.

It's not as fast as an up to date iPhone or android phone but it doesn't lag. The screen resolution is good and all the settings are easy and simple to adjust. This is the 16gb version of the ZenPad 8.0 which is more than enough room for what I'll use it for. It's not as quick to charge as an iPhone - but then again we know how long they last too! From a flat battery it takes under 2 hours to charge to 100% but I've managed to go quite a few days without needing to charge it again. My max was 5 days with between 1-3+ hours use a day. I've taken it to work with me a couple of times and it's so lightweight that it's easy to carry to and fro. It's nice to take it out during my lunch and set some notes down for blog posts or schedule some tweets. After using it for a little while it can begin to lag a little like a lot of tablets, phones and even laptops, and sometimes it can begin to get hot which I feel contributes to the lag. It's not a long wait it's just sometimes a delayed response to the action you've taken, it's easily resolved by switching it off and on again but obviously this isn't something you want to keep having to do. So far this has only occurred a couple of times for me.

It's available in sizes from 7-10 inches and I think whilst I quite like the size personally, others may like a slightly larger screen. The speakers are really good quality and it's good to snuggle up in bed with whilst watching a film instead of having a laptop on top of you. It would come in handy during hangovers as it's compact enough to curl up under the covers with. You can hide yourself from daylight and other human beings and instead, indulge in hours of Netflix. The sound quality is good for playing music whilst you get ready for a night out with access to all sorts of music apps including youtube and spotify.