I bloody love students. They are conscientious, (yes, really, most of them) funny, kind, look out for each other and are truly, madly, deeply optimistic, despite studying in the face of the climbing wall of graduate tax they have to negotiate for the next 30 years.

And …. here’s their most important attribute, the five-star, fully organic, life-affirming, diamond-encrusted, First Class Honours, attribute: TOLERANCE.

They are unbelievably tolerant of everybody around them. They put up with often ropey accommodation in ageing halls, slack landlords (and agents) who want the flow of rent without the hassle of responsibility,  mature students who look (and act) like their mums and other students who are too shy / lazy to contribute.

Additionally, they have an enviable facility for naturally using the third person pronoun when requested to do so by gender-neutral students.

The last one is impressive. Try to stop yourself saying ‘he’ or ‘she’ automatically and it’s quite brain-freezingly difficult. I will try harder. They. It’s ‘they’. How hard can this be? If you found someone’s keys, you’d automatically think: “THEY will probably come back for them later,” so we do it all the time with unidentified individuals.

This generation is an example to us all.