“Long day at the office, sir?”
“Not especially, I just think any day is a good day for steak.”
“And what is it you do, sir? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I’m- err- still a student.”
Now, it would be unfair of me to claim that the butcher in this situation had not refrained from yelling: “Get out and don’t come back; we don’t want your type in here.” He instead continued making polite smalltalk whilst fetching the remainder of my meat. I was, nevertheless, mortified. Another legitimate Bristolian was now aware that I was not just another nice resident with a degree and a real job, but rather a scum-of-the-earth student. I feel sure that, at that moment, he pictured me drunkenly queueing to enter a loud night club, already missing most of what little clothing I bothered to put on, and having previously spent hours on end ‘pre-drinking’ Sainsbury’s Basics vodka in a damp, dirty room with my unwashed underwear strewn over the floor.
Unfortunately it would seem that a huge proportion of the population attending universities (for varying definitions of ‘university’) has side effects. Where before students were (I’m assured) hated by their neighbours, we’re now hated by everyone. And I can understand why. We cost the taxpayer obscene amounts of money so that we can get (so called) degrees – which ultimately offer many of us very little advantage when it comes to getting a job. We’re loud, make a mess, and ruin the local culture by making clubs and cheap pubs viable businesses. Then we go and cost the taxpayer even more when, decades after graduation, most of us have still failed to get good enough jobs to pay for tuition and have to have our loans written off.
Most of the time, when asked what I do, I stick with ‘Software Engineer’ – that way I feel less obliged to apologise for being a detriment to society.