It has been graduation day at Southampton University. It is always wonderful to see successful students celebrating their achievements and sad to see them saying farewell and hugging their companions while new lost-looking youngsters wonder around the streets nervously.
I follow some of the students in their new careers on their blogs and am proud of the fact that my city has allowed them to travel the world with their exciting work. One student I follow who left a few years ago has a blog entitled My Little Journal (sign up from your email to request to follow).
She was sad when she saw the graduation ceremony being live-streamed and today, under the heading “The Day Southampton Made Me Cry” – she wrote:
Somehow, all the emotions and memories came rushing back to me. When I looked at their graduation photos, I felt a pang of sadness. I’ve always associated them with Southampton, along with memories attached to each person. And now, as their Southampton chapter is ending, I feel lost. It’s a nasty jab when I realized, if someday I come back to Southampton, everything will be different. I might not know anyone there, and I might feel alienated in a place that was utterly familiar to me. In a way, I guess it’s worse than moving to a completely new place, where you don’t have pieces of dormant memories tucked in every corner of the city, ready to be awoken at any moment.
Southampton means a lot to me. It was the place where I met some of the most incredible people in my life. It was the place where I found my true self, and the courage to be that self. It was the place where I fell in love, got heartbroken, and recovered in a way that made me not just stronger, but also wiser and richer.
Southampton introduced me to the best version of myself I hadn’t known before, and for that reason alone, it holds a special place in my heart.
Usually, I distract myself before I get too emotional. Today, I let myself cry.
I hope I can see you again, Southampton. :’)
SNIPS & SNAPS 
My sister, Elizabeth, was at Southampton and has never left the area
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Yes – many students find it hard to leave and get jobs here especially in the public sector. Because it flattened and renewed after WW2 people forget that it has a long history but always a new outlook.
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Lovely post and original post. Inspired me to write today’s haiku. Desperately searching for the accompanying photograph, but fear it is ‘lost’ in our house somewhere.
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You can always add it later.
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I haven’t read such an emotional post from you before and loved your words. We all should allow ourselves to feel emotions and cry when we need that release. I believe those emotional days help us reconnect with ourselves and make us stronger. xo
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Oops probably not made clear – the emotional words came from a student on “Her Little Journal” she left Uni three years ago and now after seeing the graduation of her friends realised how she had forgot to mourn for Southampton itself.
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Oops! No, I think it was my fault for misreading. Thanks for the clarification 🙂 I thought you were referring to leaving on your boat.
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Further to the Woster confusion – this you tube lesson may be of interest: https://youtu.be/9q7VjLVU8Ec
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That was hilarious! I got, maybe , 2 right!! Wow, go me 😀 Thanks for the link — I feel so stupid now. 😦 Haha! How do you pronounce Southampton? I bet I’ve been saying it wrong all this time. Wanna bet??
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I am going to have to do a blog about this -it has made me laugh so much. Southampton is as it looks. For nearly every town or village older than 1776 in England, there is a town or village of that name (some with the additional New in front) in North America and many of those names also in Australia, as it referred to where those people (colonists) settled from. Many WordPress visitors first think I am from Southampton, Suffolk County, New York. (There’s 3 places from England) There are also Southamptons or South Hamptons in Pensilvania, California and Ontario. They all sound the same with a soft ‘p’.
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I made a reply but it disappeared. I am going to have to do a post about this conversation.
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It’s true. We “graduate” from many things in life.This is a time people when people are full of hope–a good time. You will never feel exactly the same way again.
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Thank you SO much for sharing it 🙂
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It also inspired some poets!
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