Today is the first day of my year as a postgraduate. This started with a meeting with "all" other postgrads on campus, though I'm pretty sure that there weren't 3,000 attendees! It was dissappointingly hard to chat with other people - everyone was either in a group or sat alone reading! There was one girl who I wanted to befreind (simply because she had red hair) but she had her nose in a book. Not a way to make friends, that's for sure.
Following this there was a postgraduate fair, where we can sign up to get involved in GSA (Graduate Student Association) activities. I'd love to have a go at either radio or writing for the magazine, so I signed up for both and hopefully will be contacted shortly and become a stylish campus celebrity.
I got talking to a girl who I already sort of knew from second year, when we both took part in a demonstration in London. We got on but never took the chance to make friends properly - maybe this is our chance! I'm heading to a campus bar tonight and will hopefully meet her there.
What all of this comes down to is a fresh start; I can't wait to begin with proper academia, away from the trivial issues that I encountered as an undergraduate. This is all about a personal academic experience now; I will be able to lead my own education, and I feel that I'm finally in the adult world. Being an undergraduate was fun, but it was a lot like an extension of A levels, there was no hint of the real world in those 4 years (not including my teaching post in France). I will be taken seriously as an academic now, I hope. I have chosen this MA over heading up the career ladder - not to get extra time as a student, but to learn and to fulfill something inside me which is demanding more knowledge. I want to spend this year thinking and working and trying to understand what myself and others think.
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