College Life

First of all, an apology – I’ve been neglecting my blog, as being a college student now means I have no free time. I’ve been tweeting a lot more though, as I’m finding it’s a lot less pressure to tweet, rather than to construct a blog post. Now, halfway through my first year, I have the opportunity to finally write.

Since I started college in September, life’s been a frantic mix of overworking and over-socialising, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve met so many amazing people, and hardly see people who I don’t want to see. The studying environment is so different from what I was used to – teachers treat you more like adults. And although there’s on-site catering, we often find ourselves at the milkshake bar in town Of course, the amount of stairs & the fact that campus is on a hill ensures that a milkshake vice doesn’t take too much of a toll. Within seconds from college I can be in the centre of town, and that’s something I really love about it. What I don’t love? The bus journeys every day. Need I say more?

So what’s the actual studying been like? My timetable’s an interesting mix to say the least, including Mondays without breaks, and a very laid back Friday. Computing is a very enjoyable lesson, with a mix of practical programming and theory. At GCSE, it was focused on planning and designing, but Computing is a lot more “real” Computer Science, with a lot of Maths involved. Maths, ah glorious Mathematics – it’s certainly a step up from High School, but it’s not as difficult as people have claimed it to be at AS; perhaps it’s down to the teacher, I don’t know, but I certain enjoy it more than I envisaged. At the other extreme, Physics; loved it at high school, but after a term I dropped it, because it really wasn’t for me – when there’s such a jump in level, you can never be sure how it’ll end up.

To replace Physics, I’ve taken up Italian, as it’s always been an ambition of mine to study it (because of a family background) but I was never able to due to the fact that few people in the UK actually speak Italian. Of course, I’m carrying on with French and Spanish as they were always two of my strongest subjects, and I’m finding them the easiest at the moment; they’ve become more demanding at AS Level though, with lots of independent study required. My language classes are very one of a kind, and we’ve such a mix of personalities but the end result is that we never have a dull lesson. And with the language assistants burning us CDs of foreign music, grammar work doesn’t seem so bad at all.

College has given me the opportunity to develop some new skills too. I signed up for two elective classes, Creative Writing and Japanese, to add a bit of variation to my studies, and I really love what they offer me. Although the goal of my Creative Writing class is to produce a portfolio for the NOCN credits in Creative Writing, it’s on a very casual basis with no pressure to write – the focus is on enjoying it. The range of literature we study is a refreshing break from narrow GCSE poems, in which every theme was either motherhood or sheep. And Japanese? It’s a two-year course, with no particular aim for a qualification, but it’s useful as it’s focused on gap-year scenarios. I was sceptical about learning the Hiragana script, but now I write it every opportunity I can. Japanese as a possibility for uni? Maybe so.

Speak of university, my language teachers are hoping me to go to Oxford or Cambridge, to study languages, but if I’m honest I doubt that I’m good enough. Sure, I’d love to go there, but Southampton is more realistic, and it’s still a great languages uni here in the UK. Still, I’m going to apply to Cambridge quand-même. So what are my plans for next year at college? Carry on French, Spanish and Computing to A2 level, join an A2 Italian class to sit the whole A-Level in one year, and carry on Japanese into the second year class; Maths is difficult to pass, so if I get a good grade at AS, I’m pretty set up for the future, and Creative Writing lasts only one year. I’m considering signing up for a Photoshop class, and saving some money to pay for piano lessons at college. But I’m not sure. It’s too early to decide.

Hopefully after this stint, I should get back into writing more often, documenting my life as a student, and of course, the computer ideas that I have. ¿Hasta pronto, sí?