Nobody tells you when something is happening for the last time.

The last training session.

The last away day.

The last time you’ll walk into a changing room with the same group of teammates.

The last bus journey back after a disappointing defeat.

The last time your name is read out before kickoff.

The last time you pull on a shirt that means everything.

Life doesn’t pause to let you appreciate these moments. They simply happen…..and then they’re just gone.

University has a strange way of disguising endings as routines.

You spend years complaining about early lectures, assignments that never seem to end, freezing Wednesday nights travelling to BUCS fixtures, and squeezing gym sessions between deadlines. The routine becomes so familiar that you begin to believe it will always remain.

Until one day… it doesn’t.

You submit your final assignment.

You play your final match.

You leave campus.

You close the door behind you.

And suddenly the life you’ve been living for the past 3-4 years becomes a memory.

For student-athletes, that feeling is even stronger.

It shaped your weeks.

It shaped your friendships.

It shaped your identity.

Some of your closest friends weren’t made in lecture theatres. They were made during preseason fitness sessions. During away days. During the impossible victories. During defeats that hurt more than anything in the world.

Those moments build you to the person you are.

It’s only afterwards that you realise the scorelines were never the most important part.

You won’t remember every training session either.

But you’ll remember the conversations on the coach home.

You’ll remember the teammate who picked you up after your worst performance.

You’ll remember the coach who believed in you before you believed in yourself.

Those are the moments that stay.

We’re often told that university prepares us for employment.

It does.

But I think it prepares us for something much bigger.

It teaches us how to lose without giving up.

How to work with people we don’t always agree with.

How to lead.

How to follow.

How to deal with pressure.

How to rebuild confidence after failure.

How to keep showing up when that motivation disappears.

These are things that don’t show on the degree certificate.

Yes, they are often the things that shape the rest of our lives.

Perhaps that’s why leaving university feels so strange.

You’re not just saying goodbye to a place.

You’re saying goodbye to a version of yourself.

The version that had everything planned around lectures, training sessions and Wednesday afternoons.

The version that still believed adulthood was somewhere far away.

And while that’s difficult, something is exciting about it too.

Because every ending quietly creates room for a new beginning.

Maybe football continues.

Maybe it doesn’t.

Maybe something completely unexpected happens.

Whatever happens next, the person walking into that next chapter isn’t staring from nothing.

They’re carrying years of experience that a classroom can never provide.

So to all those who are still at university…..

Take that extra photo.

Stay a little longer after training.

Say yes to the team meal.

Talk to people.

Create memories.

Because one day, without even realising it, you’ll experience the last time.

And you won’t know it until it becomes a distant memory.