Third years have no time to breathe, let alone write an article or two, so let’s dispense with the flowery prose and Buzzfeed it up with a listicle!

This is your Third Year Experience:

1. Missing Orientation Welcome Week because you just returned from exchange/had to do an internship
2. As a result, you barely know any Year 1s and wonder why everyone’s doing that weird dance where they just look like they’re humping the air
3. Wondering what’s with the new slang around like “help la” and “ded”, life isn’t that bad?? Right??
4. Feeling very old compared to the new Year 1s and thinking they look like 12 year olds
5. Moving to a new room and feeling slightly discombobulated in your new surroundings
6. Looking for your house chat on WhatsApp and realising it’s now on Telegram
7. Wanting to jio your clique of friends for dinner before realising most of them aren’t in Tembusu anymore ☹
8. Becoming more comfortable with eating your dinner alone in the dining hall and realising its quite peaceful
9. Not even caring about the dining hall food anymore because you know that’s as good as it gets and realising you know the Ameens phone number by heart
10. Cackle as you see the once idealistic Year 1s last year become jaded Year 2s this year, before realising you’ve become the cynical Year 3 you always hated. I guess you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
11. Scoffing “just S/U la!” whenever Year 1s ask you for advice about modules, before going back to your room to cry over your 3 undone term essays, 2 lab reports and 1 contract with the devil
12. Declining invitations to Zouk/whateverthecoolestclubisnow because you’d rather curl up in bed by 12 and have a good night’s sleep so you won’t regret your existence so much when you wake up the next day
13. When you do decide to have a night out at the clubs, waking up the next morning feeling like the literal embodiment of death and promising never to do it again
14. Playing less sports for THG because you want to “let the juniors have a chance” (actually you’re just old and the bones ache more every year)
15. Scrolling through your Instagram feed and feeling envious of your friends on exchange who are having the time of their lives
16. Accepting the fate of your waistline and ordering that Obama for supper
17. Realising that this is probably the only point in your life when you can be an unemployed alcoholic and still make your parents proud
18. Shrugging your shoulders whenever someone asks you “what did you have to do to get your third year?” (Treehouse?)
19. Feeling stressed out when people ask you “so what jobs are you going to apply to?” because you still have no idea what you want to do

Knowing that despite all the struggles you face during Uni, you’ll never have such an experience again, and so you should enjoy it while it lasts before you enter the workforce (or for us Arts students, unemployment).

Pictures by Ong Kah Jing.

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About the Author

Isaac is a Year 3 FASS student majoring in Political Science. He wants to explore and understand the world, but is content with just surviving in university for now. He can be found browsing only the dankest memes.

Editor’s Note: This was written in response to Isaac’s previous works, Of Washing Machines and Awkwardness and The Sophomore Slump, written while he was in Year 1 and 2 respectively.