2024: Graduation, Going Abroad, and Starting Again

Saying Goodbye to University

In 2024, I completed my undergraduate degree.

There were a few small complications before my defense, but everything worked out in the end, and my thesis received a good result. I said proper goodbyes to my teachers and classmates and went on a graduation trip with oo. I had always assumed university would last for a long time. Only when I left did I realize that the familiar campus had already become something I would have to look back on.

Overall, I am happy with how I spent those four years. I entered academic competitions, met wonderful friends and teachers, and completed several important internships. What I remember most clearly now is not necessarily what went well, but the moments when failure forced me to choose a different direction.

There are regrets, of course. I did not settle on a goal early, and I missed activities I might have enjoyed. But there is little value in designing a perfect route for my past self. At the time, I could only decide with what I knew then.

After graduation, all of us arrived at another set of crossroads. Some began working, some continued studying, and others had not yet found a direction that felt right. I chose to go abroad.

Living in the UK for the First Time

In early August, I boarded a flight to the UK with another student from my university whom I had met online.

After landing in Edinburgh, the first things I remembered were the strong wind and the airport's distinctive smell. On the drive to the small town where I would study, the coastline, grass, and slower rhythm of life briefly made me forget my nerves. Part of me thought I had made the right choice. Another part reminded me that I was here to study, not to go on holiday.

The pre-sessional English course was not easy. I stumbled through conversations, eventually passed, moved into a new hall, and began my degree properly.

There were four modules in a semester, each with two or three assignments. The work was somewhat harder than during my undergraduate years, but the larger change was how we were assessed. Exams rarely depended on a defined revision range or memorization. They cared more about understanding and application. That forced me to change familiar study habits and showed me how much I had actually learned.

Outside class, I found a remote job. Working on a real project gave me feedback much faster than studying alone. For a while, I was balancing classes with work, joining a few church activities, and gradually getting to know both the town and the people who lived there.

Learning to Live Alone

I had expected loneliness to be difficult. Once I arrived, I adapted better than I had imagined.

University had already taught me how to spend time alone, and I have always enjoyed working with computers. Solitude is not necessarily loneliness. Sometimes it simply means being able to read, write code, or do nothing according to my own rhythm.

That year, I started drawing again. I had liked it for a long time, but my practice had always been intermittent. Drawing and programming share something: both begin with a blank space, require patience with details, and offer a direct satisfaction when something finally takes shape.

They are also different. Code is usually trying to produce a defined result. Drawing lets me stay longer with something that has no practical use. At the time, that mattered to me.

The Plans I Wrote for 2025

At the end of the year, I wrote down several goals for 2025.

For work, I wanted to keep preparing for job applications: improve my system design and architecture skills, complete more convincing projects, and become more natural in spoken English.

For life, I wanted to continue drawing and reading, exercise regularly, and stop hiding in my room quite so often. The plan looked complete on paper and would inevitably change in practice, but it recorded what mattered to me at the time.

The Word for the Year

If I had to choose one word for 2024, it would be “transition.”

I went from student to graduate, from a familiar campus to an unfamiliar country, and from a life shaped by assigned courses to one for which I had to take responsibility. Every transition brought excitement and hesitation together.

Moving farther away did not suddenly give me a clear picture of the future. What 2024 gave me was a little less fear of beginning again.

In the new year, I would keep looking for work, learning, and living. For now, I could do what was in front of me and see where it led.