I have turned my computer on simply to record this feeling. This evening’s gospel choir concert was wonderful. It was beyond beautiful. The singing itself was extremely good, but it was something else that made the concert so bittersweet. It acted as a swansong for the entire third year, and once again I found myself wanting to cry.

Charlie did an excellent job. No doubt about it. It was almost intended to make us cry – why else should she include tearjerkers such as Joe and sally singing ‘eye of the sparrow’ and John singing ‘what a wonderful world’? there was sort of a terrible beauty about it, for the entire third year saw it as a final assembly. We all know what’s about to happen; we know our parting is inevitable, but none of us want it to happen.

Of course, there were happy tunes too. It would not be a concert by Charlie if it did not include a bob Marley medley. I suspect that she had me in mind when she left my favourite – ‘hey beautiful day – to last, allowing me to dance with Emma. In all probability, that moment was, at one and the same time, both the happiest and saddest of my life.

Charlie’s most apt inclusion was her own song, Smile When you say Goodbye, written for her brother. It truly is a happy song; yet, as I ay, we all know we will soon part.

At the end of the concert, I just felt…well, I can’t describe it. Both elated and desperately sad. It is both happy and heartbreaking. I find myself wanting time to stand still, to live forever in this moment, with all my friends. But I know it won’t. Time never ceases – there will be other people to meet, other places to see. If uni has taught me anything, it is that there are no barriers.

Sitting there, after the concert, I suddenly remembered a line from what was once my favourite book, and one which I still cherish. The words of a wise old man, delivered at a parting of friends: ”I will not say do not cry, for not all tears are evil.”