25 Things to Do Before Graduation

There comes a moment toward the end of one’s student life when the calendar begins to accelerate. The nights seem shorter, the coffee stronger and the sense of impending adulthood increasingly insistent. Before long the library becomes an accessory, the campus paths feel unusually sentimental and conversations drift toward the tantalising idea of what comes next. Yet before cap and gown transform the atmosphere, there is a final season of delightful irresponsibility to be enjoyed. The traditions, diversions and small rites of passage one completes before graduation form the understated folklore of university life.

Below is a collection of experiences worthy of the moment. Some are energetic, others reflective, all designed to help students step into the future with a sense that they have tasted the full flavour of their academic years.

1. Start With a Spirited Outing at Sixes Cricket

Before adulthood begins its gentle tightening of schedules, it is only fitting to gather your favourite people for an evening at Sixes Cricket. There is something wonderfully liberating about stepping into a place where the lighting is warm, the atmosphere convivial and the unmistakable thrum of competitive delight fills the air. Sixes combines the refined ease of a well kept social club with the playful charm of a batting challenge that flatters both the enthusiast and the cheerful amateur.

A session here has a way of dissolving the mild anxieties of final term. The familiar crack of the bat, the soft encouragement from friends, the quiet satisfaction of timing one delivery perfectly, each contributes to an evening rich with camaraderie. It is the kind of gathering that allows you to forget deadlines, to relish laughter and to leave with memories that fit neatly into the narrative of student years well spent. If there is a better opening ritual for a pre graduation bucket list, most have yet to encounter it.

2. Master a Signature Dish

Before leaving the protected world of campus living, it is essential to know how to prepare at least one dish that suggests you possess a whisper of sophistication. It need not be complex. What matters is confidence. A good risotto, a well balanced curry or a roast chicken with herbs chosen for their compatibility rather than their availability all qualify. There is a particular pleasure in preparing food that makes you appear more capable than you feel.

Learning a signature dish provides a comforting sense of competence, and it offers a small defence against the culinary despair that frequently afflicts new graduates.

3. Write a Letter to Your Future Self

Digital life has made the art of letters feel quaint yet appealing. Taking time to write a letter to your future self, sealed and stored somewhere reliable, allows you to capture a version of your thoughts that might otherwise evaporate. Students often underestimate the significance of these reflective acts.

Write about hopes, fears, ambitions, and the small foolish things that seem important now. In a few years, reading the letter will feel rather like meeting a younger companion whose optimism remains strangely contagious.

4. Attend an Event Entirely Outside Your Comfort Zone

University provides the rare freedom to experiment without consequence. Find an event you would ordinarily decline and go. It might be a philosophy lecture, a life drawing class, a public debate or a ballroom workshop. The point is to expose yourself to something unfamiliar, something that nudges the boundaries of routine.

These small acts of curiosity often become treasured anecdotes later in life.

5. Explore the Hidden Corners of Your Campus

Every campus has its secrets. A garden tucked behind a faculty building, a forgotten corridor, a stairwell with a perfect acoustic echo. Wander without purpose. Explore buildings you normally pass without noticing. Graduation has a way of making these spaces feel suddenly significant.

Discovering them now ensures your memory of university life carries depth as well as breadth.

6. Have a Proper Night of Stargazing

Before life grows filled with meetings and early mornings, take one night to admire the sky with the seriousness of a poet. A hilltop, a park, a quiet courtyard, all will do. Bring blankets, warm drinks and friends capable of appreciating silence.

The stars encourage a kind of philosophical calm that pairs nicely with the restless anticipation of graduation.

7. Host a Dinner Party With Actual Tableware

There comes a time to retire the plastic plates of convenience. Host a dinner for friends using real plates, proper glasses and cutlery that does not resemble something designed for camping. The event does not need formality. Its charm lies in the sense of transition. Students find themselves behaving like adults while still enjoying the freedoms of youth.

It is a gentle rehearsal for the life awaiting beyond campus walls.

8. Visit a Museum You Have Been Meaning to See for Years

Most students live near museums of great merit yet never cross the threshold. Before graduating, choose one. Wander slowly. Read the placards. Allow yourself to be drawn into a world that has nothing to do with exams or essays. Museums cultivate perspective, something graduates often suddenly appreciate.

The act feels pleasantly civilised.

9. Have a Vegetarian Week

Whether for curiosity, virtue or merely a culinary challenge, spending a week eating entirely plant based food offers the chance to discover flavours that might otherwise remain ignored. University kitchens are surprisingly inventive when approached with intent.

It is a modest experiment that introduces diversity to your palate and narrative to your final months.

10. Take an Unplanned Day Trip

Choose a nearby town, coast or countryside location and go without itinerary. Wander through streets, visit bookshops, taste local pastries and observe the gentle rhythms of everyday life away from campus.

The spontaneity is the essential ingredient. It reminds you that life will always have room for unstructured pleasure.

11. Learn a Dance Step or Two

Not for mastery, simply for charm. A basic waltz, a confident salsa turn or a few steps of swing dancing can transform social occasions into delightful interludes. Learning them now, without the pressure of adulthood, adds a cultured flourish to your future self.

The skill is small, but its effect is quietly impressive.

12. Read One Classic You Pretended to Know

Every student has at least one. A novel mentioned often at parties, a play misquoted with alarming confidence, a poem nodded at without ever having read a line. Now is the time to remedy the situation.

Choose the classic and read it properly. The satisfaction is immediate, the intellectual humility flattering.

13. Sit in on a Lecture for a Subject You Never Studied

It may be physics, anthropology, architecture or medieval literature. The subject does not matter. The novelty does. Observing someone else’s academic world provides a subtle thrill and reminds you of the immense variety university life contains.

For a brief hour you are delightfully unburdened by final grades.

14. Compile a Playlist That Captures Your Degree Years

Music carries memory more efficiently than any photograph. Gather songs that accompanied your late night essays, your first term nerves, your unexpected friendships and your spontaneous evenings.

Years later the playlist will feel like a time capsule.

15. Try Sunrise Breakfast Somewhere Quiet

There is something strangely luxurious about eating breakfast before everyone else is awake. Choose a scenic spot, bring something warm to drink and enjoy the gentle arrogance of beginning the day ahead of the world.

It is a quietly triumphant ritual.

16. Take Photographs of the Mundane

Not the iconic landmarks but the everyday details. The bench where you waited for lectures. The café table that saw countless conversations. The hallway where you once nearly missed an exam.

These are the fragments that true nostalgia rests upon.

17. Attempt a Creative Project

Write a short story, paint something, record a podcast episode or produce a short video. Creative acts allow you to capture the atmosphere of student life in ways essays never will.

The result need not be polished. It simply needs to exist.

18. Reinvent Your Study Space One Last Time

Before you leave it behind, refresh your study area. Tidy it with ceremony. Arrange books with pride. Consider what your desk has seen. This soft act of closure helps students step forward with clarity.

It is surprisingly therapeutic.

19. Join a Society Meeting You Never Considered

Ballooning, drama, astronomy, debate, it scarcely matters. Sit in, try something new and leave with the pleasant satisfaction of having added a thread of novelty to your story.

University is designed for experimentation. Make use of it.

20. Dress Unexpectedly Well for an Entire Day

Wear your best outfit for no reason whatsoever. Glide through corridors as if the world has become your private runway. Confidence grows quickly when one dresses for the version of success not yet reached.

The effect is mildly intoxicating.

21. Revisit Your Freshers Week Haunts

Return to the places where your student life began. Observe how your relationship with them has changed. The experience is both amusing and reassuring.

It offers a charming sense of narrative symmetry.

22. Have a Long, Luxurious Lunch With Your Closest Friends

A proper lunch, unhurried and indulgent. Several hours of conversation, reflection and gentle teasing. These meals become memories of rare warmth.

Time spent with the right people always acquires value.

23. Make a Small Purchase You Will Keep for Life

A ring, a watch, a fountain pen or a book with a pleasing spine. Something that will live with you long after graduation. Years later it will anchor recollections of a time that shaped you.

Objects can carry surprising emotional weight.

24. Thank a Lecturer or Staff Member Who Made a Difference

A simple note, spoken or written, means more than students often realise. Gratitude has a way of elevating one’s final weeks, giving closure to experiences that may have felt chaotic at the time.

It is a refined gesture.

25. Take One Last Walk Through Campus at Night

The final rite. The campus after dark acquires a soft, contemplative beauty. Street lamps glow with improbable warmth, windows flicker with late night ambition and the silence feels almost ceremonial. Walk slowly. Remember the moments that shaped you. Allow yourself to feel the pleasant strangeness of transition.

Graduation will arrive soon enough. For now, there is still the luxury of lingering.