Where is my Mind?

Figure it’s about time I actually write a post about how this term has been so far and shizzle. I guess I’ve been putting it off for so long because it’s been a strange term; second year has taken me completely by surprise. First year was different to how I expected, of course, but it was infinitely better than I could ever have imagined. Second year has been more of a mixed bag, and so I thought it would be better to write this when I’m feeling more positive about the whole thing (as if I’d written this post in the first few weeks of term, it wouldn’t have been fun reading).

One of the huge changes in second year is living in a house. I remember this time last year, when we were booking numerous house viewings and panicking about finding somewhere half decent to live, and we came across this house and fell in love with it. However, viewing a house and living there is not the same thing. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the cottagey kitchen and the huge shower, and my room has become ‘a home away from home’ (though I did coerce it into being so) but when there are damp and mould issues and a gas leak and a toilet seat that isn’t attached to the toilet…Alas, these things are to be expected in a Victorian house, and particularly in one being let out to students. To be fair, I don’t spend much time in my house anyway; it’s ended up being somewhere I return to at the end of a long day to crash and nom and faff.

This year has been a lot more work so far. The essays are more abstract and we get less guidance, and with the four lab reports we have to do this year we’re ending up doing 8,000 words per term. It’s a lot. We haven’t received any marks back yet and I could not even begin to guess how that bloody cognitive essay went…Academically, there’s a feeling of wading through, trying to get everything done but knowing that I’ll end up cramming at Christmas.

To be honest, it’s also partly down to all of the other commitments I have this year which seem to take twice as much time as last year even though I’m essentially doing the same thing. As Media and Communications officer of Debating Soc., I now have my own radio show on Insanity- yep, that’s right, I’ve reached the big time. Aside from the general coolness of having a radio show, it’s been going surprisingly well; we’ve got a few regular guest speakers who never fail to be able to string out a debate about middle eastern politics or something else I know pretty much nothing about for a good twenty minutes before we cut to some music. I chip in every now and then with a comment clearly from a layperson’s perspective in the hope of appealing to a wider audience, but to be fair, if you’re listening to the Debating Soc.’s radio show, politics and history are what you’re going to get. I apparently didn’t comprehend that myself before taking the show on.

Squash was particularly heavy over the first couple of weeks- there was a lot of administration stuff to do, as Secretary. It’s calmed down a bit more now and I’m starting to simply enjoy playing again. The social side of squash is pretty intense but crazily fun; I’ve particularly enjoyed a couple of our outings to the SU and a great night at the Magic Wok with copious amounts of Chinese food and wine. I don’t play as often as I’d like but having a gym membership means that I get light cards for free so I really should go and book the courts with a few mateys more often…

Then there’s the College Shop (officially the Store on Campus, but no-one calls it that). Working at the College Shop is a unique experience. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done retail before (five years at Clarks this month! Worrying times…) but this small-scale retail, this is niche retail, and hence it’s pretty idiosyncratic. In comparison to working at Clarks, the almost absolute freedom granted whilst working in the College Shop was unnerving at first, but now I’m really starting to enjoy being able to faff around a bit without worrying about targets or selling or being excessively nice to customers. For the first time, I don’t feel like I have to be a subservient arse-kisser and it’s really rather refreshing. Admittedly, there are times when I wish there were more aims and targets and general direction, and there is no doubt that when there isn’t much to do, even my four hour shifts drag by awfully slowly. All in all, it’s a decent job and it brings in some very handy extra cash.

I guess those are the main facets of my life at the moment. Sometimes I feel like I hardly socialise, but I’m so incredibly thankful to have made such friends at university that, even if a whole week goes by when I don’t see some of them, we can meet up again and nothing will have changed. The love’s there. It’s like they’re mini-versions of my home friends, and I could never have expected friendships on that sort of level in such a short time frame; I consequently get a lot of those, “shit, I have good friends” moments which have helped me through the times this term when I was feeling a bit low. The first few weeks were tough in particular (spending the whole three months at home during summer was possibly not a good idea) and I was overwhelmed with everything, but now I’m feeling much more integrated with university life and the thought of leaving Royal Holloway, even for a week or something, actually worries me. It’s almost like I’m in a relationship with the place, and we’ve recently had sex and made up and are now in the period of having to spend all of our time together. Hmm.

Oh, and the title? Go listen to the song. It’s by The Pixies. It’s immense.