Open, breathe in, breathe out, shut, repeat.
A constant state of disbelief hangs over your downcast head when you are studying at an institution (what an aptly chosen title) of higher education. A feeling of running on the spot gradualy dawns upon you, as you realise you don't know where you are headed and what you are running from anyway.
The lecturers haunt the rooms like spectres of themselves, shells of who they once were. Downtrodden by the academic buarcracy and crawling under the weight of the rubble of crushed dreams and mounting debts. They care little for who you might be and why you are there, they are trying to survive as much as you are.
Juggling a thousand assignments and trying to think creatively when you have woken up with only four hours sleep again is beginning to take its toll. You catch yourself nodding off in the second row from the back of a lecture theatre packed with people who seem to be so well adjusted but in fact are just as exhausted as yourself. And nothing gets easier.
Three years on and your friends are getting married, have jobs and houses, some have been in work for the past three years. You think what was the point as you try to assess the past years of your life and no real answer emerges from the mists of indecision. But life pushes you on a hastily argued choice has to be made and you find yourself thrust into looking for a job that you don't really want. Or continuing with the academic struggle of rising loans and increasing workloads trying to find that elusive foothold on the career ladder.
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The above is how I see most people's view of University if they have actually experienced it for themselves. There are different degrees to the extent of how much it is true depending on where you study, what you study and how much money your parents have. I'm not so bad really I decided on what I wanted to do at the beginning of my last year of university and found an MSc course that had funding. Beccy's course is a bit different though, it seems that if you want to do certain jobs you must have decided upon the career path at an age of at least 16 if not earlier. How can we be expected to know what we have to do to get some of these jobs and how to get them?
Careers advisors should be used more in schools and universities not just looking at the traditional semi-skilled or management jobs but sciences, teaching, specialisms etc. The system has vast deficiencies for those that are undecided upon their route and it actively works against them - you need experience to get a job but can't get experience without a job! - you can get training on the job but can't get on a job without training!
Anyway in a realted note I've started applying for my work placement and project for my MSc. I didn't like most of the choices on the noticeboard so went and found a few myself, my module leader wasn't much help in aranging these so I brought another to his attention and said I wanted to apply in writing myself (for an actual job that I could also do my placement at). He said okay, as I think he hasn't really got the time or effort to spare trying to arrange a placement for one student. This has now led to me applying for another permanent position (in the same town, Shrewsbury, coincidentally) off my own back. I have very much a "to do something right, do it yourself" attitude when it comes to arranging things like this.
So I've gone over the module leader's head on this but I hope I'll get a job out of it, get paid, get my placement done, get my project done and end up in a better position than doing some crappy countryside warden job for a few weeks.
Other things;
Kendo grading on Friday, got to practice.
Kung Fu grading next month, know almost all of it just need to work on hip twists and footwork to make perfect.
Martial arts course at weekend was cool. We did breakfalls (slaping the floor as we purposly threw ourselves at it), grappling and throws (smashing people onto their backs and twisting their arms till it hurts), and pressure points (stabing a couple of fingers in certain places and seeing the guy crumple to the floor, apparently this doesn't really effect me, half the class tried to find my pressure points but I stayed standing). I also signed up for a course on Escrima stick and knife fighting in a couple of months, how cool!
Got some more results back. 71% in Environmental Impact Assessment. That makes 3 over 70% (Distinction) out of 5 modules and I'm expecting at least 1 more if not 2/3 out of the last 3 modules.
That's it for now. Need to read about ecology, getting behind in reading must do some quick so I get another 70+% grade!
The lecturers haunt the rooms like spectres of themselves, shells of who they once were. Downtrodden by the academic buarcracy and crawling under the weight of the rubble of crushed dreams and mounting debts. They care little for who you might be and why you are there, they are trying to survive as much as you are.
Juggling a thousand assignments and trying to think creatively when you have woken up with only four hours sleep again is beginning to take its toll. You catch yourself nodding off in the second row from the back of a lecture theatre packed with people who seem to be so well adjusted but in fact are just as exhausted as yourself. And nothing gets easier.
Three years on and your friends are getting married, have jobs and houses, some have been in work for the past three years. You think what was the point as you try to assess the past years of your life and no real answer emerges from the mists of indecision. But life pushes you on a hastily argued choice has to be made and you find yourself thrust into looking for a job that you don't really want. Or continuing with the academic struggle of rising loans and increasing workloads trying to find that elusive foothold on the career ladder.
---------------------
The above is how I see most people's view of University if they have actually experienced it for themselves. There are different degrees to the extent of how much it is true depending on where you study, what you study and how much money your parents have. I'm not so bad really I decided on what I wanted to do at the beginning of my last year of university and found an MSc course that had funding. Beccy's course is a bit different though, it seems that if you want to do certain jobs you must have decided upon the career path at an age of at least 16 if not earlier. How can we be expected to know what we have to do to get some of these jobs and how to get them?
Careers advisors should be used more in schools and universities not just looking at the traditional semi-skilled or management jobs but sciences, teaching, specialisms etc. The system has vast deficiencies for those that are undecided upon their route and it actively works against them - you need experience to get a job but can't get experience without a job! - you can get training on the job but can't get on a job without training!
Anyway in a realted note I've started applying for my work placement and project for my MSc. I didn't like most of the choices on the noticeboard so went and found a few myself, my module leader wasn't much help in aranging these so I brought another to his attention and said I wanted to apply in writing myself (for an actual job that I could also do my placement at). He said okay, as I think he hasn't really got the time or effort to spare trying to arrange a placement for one student. This has now led to me applying for another permanent position (in the same town, Shrewsbury, coincidentally) off my own back. I have very much a "to do something right, do it yourself" attitude when it comes to arranging things like this.
So I've gone over the module leader's head on this but I hope I'll get a job out of it, get paid, get my placement done, get my project done and end up in a better position than doing some crappy countryside warden job for a few weeks.
Other things;
Kendo grading on Friday, got to practice.
Kung Fu grading next month, know almost all of it just need to work on hip twists and footwork to make perfect.
Martial arts course at weekend was cool. We did breakfalls (slaping the floor as we purposly threw ourselves at it), grappling and throws (smashing people onto their backs and twisting their arms till it hurts), and pressure points (stabing a couple of fingers in certain places and seeing the guy crumple to the floor, apparently this doesn't really effect me, half the class tried to find my pressure points but I stayed standing). I also signed up for a course on Escrima stick and knife fighting in a couple of months, how cool!
Got some more results back. 71% in Environmental Impact Assessment. That makes 3 over 70% (Distinction) out of 5 modules and I'm expecting at least 1 more if not 2/3 out of the last 3 modules.
That's it for now. Need to read about ecology, getting behind in reading must do some quick so I get another 70+% grade!