Postgrads Need to Lighten Up

Postgraduates are so unbelievably moody. Don’t believe me? Let me tell you about the postgrad WhatsApp group chat. Despite being a 317 member strong (or, rather, weak) community, it has turned into a desert landscape. Around 290 of the members likely have the chat muted and the remaining 27 are either bantering lovers of joy who rejoice in light-hearted — though sometimes decidedly non-university-related — discussion or nasty killjoys who haven’t felt a positive emotion since Freshers’ week of their undergrad and who delight only in demanding that the other side immediately put an end to their mirthful yammering. 

Their rationale behind such demands: light-hearted discussion clogs up the chat and thus prevents people from having easy access to university events that are occasionally posted on the chat. You may ask, “What university events are so important as to require not only that they be pushed into our email inboxes and spread across our Instagram feeds, but also that they be no more than two swipes away at any given time on the group chat?” Why, of course, truly thrilling events like ‘Professor X talks about subject Y’ — a subject which a grand total of four people will be interested in, all of whom have already decided to go and/or have muted the chat anyway. 

I’m sure readers will be able to make out which group I belong to (hint: the last time I felt a positive emotion was only a couple of months ago as opposed to four years ago). Despite being on track to complete a second Master’s — in Philosophy, no less — I have yet to completely lose all hope and joy. Unfortunately, my attitude is not shared amongst all of my peers. There is a serious air of malaise which permeates the postgrad community. We have decided that we are either too old, too smart, or too serious to have fun. 

Now this is not entirely unsurprising. We do have busy workloads, and it is far more difficult for us to naturally form social bonds. Most of us live on our own and many live outside St Andrews entirely. Our courses are small, and our choice of peers with whom to become friends includes people of vastly different ages with vastly different priorities. Venturing outside of the postgrad bubble is also uncomfortable. The idea of going to a non-postgrad-exclusive social and making a friend (or friends) only to find out that they’re a fresher whose only just recently developed object permanence is particularly disconcerting. In any case, a great deal of us are only here for one or two years, and so we would rather stay firmly committed to our old lives back home than bother to try to craft new — and most likely temporary — lives in Fife. 

But this is precisely why we should lighten up. Our lives are too short and our studies too serious to stop us from enjoying St Andrews to the fullest. Now this does not mean we need to emulate the debauchery which freshers so confidently take part in every year and then promptly proceed to have no memory of. We don’t need to go out on weekly benders nor regrettably hook up with all our postgrad friends. I think most of us have recognised that this is quintessential undergrad behaviour which we can safely leave behind. But we needn’t become unfeeling hermits who curse the wind either. We can strike a nice balance between being serious adults and seriously trying to make connections, to take some of the weight of being serious adults off of our shoulders. We can start, maybe, by inviting each other over, by going out for a coffee or a pint, and, at the very least, by bantering on group chats and allowing others to do the same. 

For any undergrads reading this, take it as a cautionary tale: you do not want to end up a grumpy postgrad, and if you feel you are already in danger of becoming a grumpy third, fourth, or even first-year, do yourself a favour and lighten up.