Always be nice to people on the way up; because you'll meet the same people on the way down...

There seems to be a strange period in a young person's life around the age of eighteen, should they decide to decend into the strange world of higher education. This strange period is rooted in a complete overhaul of personality.
Once upon a time, going to University was exception and not the rule. Parents swelled larger than Violet in Willy Wonka's factory with pride as their little munchkin packed up their bags and flew the nest in order to hopefully earn a degree that put them on a path to a bowler hat, a semi in the suburbs and 2.4 children.

However, higher education has opened up to students who, like myself, find themselves the first in their family at University, in order to hopefully 'better' themselves. This has given kids that would have found themselves behind the checkout or down the mines, but wanting a career in teaching or law, able to realise their dreams, through a lot of hard graft.

It is said that University widens your perspective of life and character, inevitable with meeting people from different countries and backgrounds, thus leaving school friends who meet up after covering the width and breadth of England perhaps quite surprised at what a difference three months can make.

Moving to another part of the country and studying at a University that has similar entrance requirements to your friends choices, does not make you better than them and the town you've grown up in. It simply means you have done what most of the UCAS applicants have done. Even if you had managed to fight your way through Oxbridge entrance exams, you still are not some form of demi-god that can speak in any way they wish to others, especially your friends that have stayed with you for years.

Well done you yes for getting into University, but there is no need to sneer down the end of your nose at others, disgusted as if they were Fagin's street urchins, as you suddenly have a large sense of false superiority over those who still treat you in the same way, and are in a similarly respectable situation to you.

University can change you, but not always for the better. But the thing to remember is yes you may go back to your equally snobby flatmates and chortle over the ghastly peasants you used to have to breathe the same air as, whilst you probably train yourself to speak in iambic pentameter. One day, they may possibly not see you as their equal and you'll land flat on your face. With the 'peasants' holding very long memories....