Life is like a chess game... (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Life is like a chess game...

3:20pm Tuesday 12th May 2009 in

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I am one of the fortunate graduates, regarded jealously by my peers, for choosing modules carefully last September in order to avoid exams. I should explain, my degree in English and Journalism works on a modular basis, so I can choose three modules of English and one of Journalism for each semester, and each module is published at the beginning of the year with information about who’s teaching it, what it involves, and what the assessment is. You can’t say we’re uninformed. So basically, my academic year finished last Friday 8 May, final deadline at midnight.

After spending Saturday in a state of numbness, not really knowing what to do with myself, and slowly taking in that all those books and journal articles that piled up on my desk, floor and dining table could be put away, never looked at again if I so chose, except that, I rather enjoyed the past few months and find myself planning to read those articles I never got round to about mascotting Native Americans and postcolonial struggles for identity.

Upon handing in the last piece of coursework, I felt like I was in a chess game- like I could do whatever I wanted if I made the right move. A wrong move wouldn’t end in disaster, but could set me back a little.

Studying English lit this year has opened up doors of possibility for me, and made me realise that this is what I want to carry on doing. Not spending my summer despairing over the job market, filling in countless job applications, tweaking my CV in order to spend the next few years in an office, ‘living for the weekend’ as one friend of mine who’s a recent graduate put it. And student life has its appeals, what with NUS cards, no early mornings and effectively being your own boss. As I think I’ve mentioned, there are generous bursaries and scholarships available for postgrads, (still waiting to hear on that one) but I’ve also been blessed with generous parents and the family that I nanny for, who have agreed to put me up for the year. I feel incredibly blessed and fortunate – at this stage, any grant money that comes my way for my MA will be a bonus.