...you wake up and realise that - for the next three years at least - you don't have to be in the office by 7:15am
...you stop feeling guilty about having a lie-in until 8am
...stopping work at 6pm isn't regarded as "going part-time"
...you remember what eating lunch feels like
...you're not in a hurry all the time
...you start noticing that the sky is occasionally blue
...if you don't enjoy what you're writing you can just stop and go for a walk or watch telly for a couple of hours instead
...you don't get uni phoning you up at 3am/ while you're in the shower/ during Christmas lunch, expecting you to drop everything and do some work
...you get time off during holiday periods and not in February and October because colleagues with kids have block booked periods of decent weather
...you actually get time off without the boss cancelling it at short notice so that you can deal with the fallout from some crisis s/he caused
...in the winter you get to go outdoors during daylight Monday to Friday
...you spend your days with people you actually enjoy being around
...the people around you are lively, enthusiastic and looking for possibilities, rather than praying for death or retirement (whichever comes quickest)
Oh god, I love being a student! How long can I string this out?