The beginning of the end

Tomorrow I embark upon my final semester as an undergraduate at university, ever.

I travelled back to my uni house this afternoon, and was inconceivably happy to see Stuart and Ben and New Simon and Tall Simon. My love for my uni friends feels heightened suddenly, I think just because I am so acutely aware that we don't have much longer left all together.

After we all had a pasta bake together, the above minus Ben and I decided to play in the snow :D As I grew up in a rather secluded town, away from where the majority of my friends (and people in general) lived, I really don't have any experiences of being in the snow with a group of friends. Apart from on the ski trip. We wanted to make a snowman but the snow was far too powdery so we decided to go to the golf course opposite our house (well actually the boys decided this and I reluctantly went with - I was worried it was private property and a scary man was going to jump out the bushes and arrest us for trespassing) and we had a big walk and the boys played with large sticks and re-enacted scenes from Lord of the Rings and then they found a huge frozen puddle and they all kept edging closer and closer to it whilst I stood on the sidelines shouting at them to be careful. It was lovely. I know that come even next week, I won't believe it was a whole week ago, let alone when I remember back to this in 10/20/30 years time. After this we walked to the end of our road and went to the newsagents. Amazingly at it was still open at 11pm so we all bought treats. I got a Magnum and revelled in the fact I could eat it as slowly as I wanted without it melting, thanks to the subzero temperatures this tonight.

Ohhh I just can't believe it's so nearly over. I'm not ready to leave these people. It's gone too quickly. I knew it would, but no one could have ever prepared me for how it has flown by. I want to cling on to them and never let go. Though they might find that a bit peculiar.

Tomorrow I have my first lecture of the semester, and I am seeing Amy and we are going to make a vlog together and I am seeing Nasima and Emma and Lucy and I just COULDN'T be more excited!!!! I have missed them so much.

So now, all that's left to do...GET. A. FIRST. UGHIGJSDKFASMNDGMBMF
Good night! x

PS..New York blog coming soon

Ageing up

SOMEHOW it turned into halfway through semester one of my final year at university.

It turns out that a part of final year is working out how to transition into a real life human. Unfortunately, it does not involve being surrounded by stars and sparkles, doing a spin in the air and morphing into a taller person in different clothes. This is only the case in the Sims.

What it does include is applying for jobs. I've had part time jobs since I was 15, and my friends who didn't go to university have had full time jobs for a few years now. But I've been in the glorious bubble that is full time education, and the time is coming for the bubble to burst and for me to be exposed to the Outside World.

The other day, October 18th, I found an advertisement for my Ultimate Dream Job. You know when someone suggests something, and you'd like to do that thing loads, and you get all excited and squirmy inside and you just want to DO IT NOW, like when someone tells you you're going on holiday or when you have tickets to see your favourite band. I read this job opening and that's how I felt. Every single line of the ad, every single requirement for the role, every detail just consumed me with a squishy feeling I usually only associate with the prospect of cheesecake. I just want this job SO BADLY. It encompasses everything I love to do, everything I've loved to do since I was 15 years old, everything I think I am good at. I keep re-reading the ad and sometimes I believe with every fibre of my being that there is no other person on this planet Earth that is more perfectly suited to the job than I am. And other times I am enveloped in the fear that someone else will apply who is better than me. But mostly I just feel that if I was given the opportunity, I could be the absolutely best person for this job that they could possibly imagine, and that I'd do everything in my power to get to this point. And sometimes I feel sad because I truly don't think I could ever feel as excited about a job as I feel about this one. I feel like this is the Job For Me, and that even jobs I've previously been interested in and intrigued by pale in comparison.

On Monday I'm applying for this job.

I'm terrified, excited, determined, confident, self-doubting and thrilled by this prospect. But most of all, I'm convinced that I am the right person for the job and that I could truly do it justice.








PS I just looked back and on September 2nd I wrote in a blog that I needed to work out what I want to do with my adult life. THIS JOB IS WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY ADULT LIFE.

Second year of university = done.

What goes to show how long it's been since I blogged is that I've had the new Blogspot interface for AGES but when I clicked "New Post" I only just saw this new window thing for the very first time.

I've been fairly busy, but that hasn't been the most consuming thing. What has consumed me is the fact that the things I've been doing have all been vitally important to how the rest of my life will probably pan out.

Yes, that seems (and probably is) exaggerated, but right now, at this moment in time, I feel like everything depends on my final degree classification. Which I'd like to hope it doesn't, but that's what it seems like now. And last semester I don't feel like the grades I got were entirely what I expected/wanted/had hoped for. So this semester I've gone a bit MAD with effort. And I feel like it has paid off, although knowing me I've just horrendously jinxed it.

My favourite module was probably Music, Culture and Technology. This shocked me, as it was my only 100% theory module. But I absolutely LOVED it. It was about the music industry, the technology behind it, the theory behind it, history, people, everything. We learnt about cassettes, vinyls, singles, race, gender, class, really amazingly interesting stuff. What made it perfect was the lecturer, Lee, who is absolutely brilliant. I really loved this module particularly because every week we had to write an 150 word blog in response to the lecture, and each blog was worth 10%, and there was 10 of them. So this was 50% of the module, and the other 50% was an essay. I got a First on the essay, and 6 out of the 10 blogs were a First (3 2:1s and a 2:2) so IF MY AVERAGES ARE CORRECT (please whoever is in charge of these things let them correct) I got a First overall. HUZZAH!

My second favourite module was Magazines, Culture and Society. 50% of the module was a report on a magazine of our choice, for which I chose Wanderlust which is a brilliant British travel magazine. For the other 50% we had to produce an extract from a magazine, of the same genre as the one we did our report on. So I made 11 pages from a travel magazine inspired by Wanderlust. It was my proudest piece of practical work ever, and handing it in today actually hurt me inside a little bit! I can't wait to get it back and show my family. I don't even mind that I spent £75 getting it printed all fancy like - I wanted to show it off best I could!

Another module that I really liked was Video Production, for which me and my group had to make an advert for Domestos. It went well, and I will probably put it on YouTube soon for people to have a look at if they would like to.

My last module was Radio Production, and this was my biggest struggle as such. I didn't find it difficult, as I am confident talking in front of an audience, and I am competent when it comes to editing. But it was more of a state-of-mind issue that I had, but I think hopefully I overcame it and that my final result is good. We had to do a radio talk (40%) and I know that bit went well, and then a 5 minute radio feature (60%). Fingers crossed with that.

Ultimately, looking back, this semester went incredibly well. Just one First would make me ecstatic, but I'm holding on to the hope that I may have maybe got another one. We'll see.

So yes, that is my second year of university over with. I'm not happy with this for two reasons. The first reason is that this semester has been horrifically short and therefore I do not feel I have got value for money AT ALL when it comes to tuition fees. And secondly, it means I'm two thirds through, and it's going outrageously fast. Ugh.

I'm very excited about third year, as the modules I've picked all sound brilliant. I'll write about them more another time. Right now my eyes are aching from tiredness and I'm contemplating another slice of cherry tart.

I hope everyone's well, let me know.

xxx