I’ve been fortunate enough to achieve good semester one results (fingers crossed I’ll be able to say the same after the forthcoming exams!), make a stand-up comedy debut, sing and dance in the professional venue of the Nuffield Theatre, successfully audition and plan for the trip of a lifetime to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and direct a play for the first time, amongst many other things – and, given the promise of the rest of the year, there’s more where that came from!
The Edinburgh cast recently took to the radio with a fundraiser for our
trip,
and made a whopping £285! Thank you to everyone who donated!
(Credit:
@GoneRogueUK)
But, although sometimes you can feel yourself living inside a student bubble of assignments, revision and socialising (and, in my case, rehearsals for something or other!), I often find that it’s events which take place in the outside world that keep you grounded, and remind you time is ticking by as ever. Already this calendar year we’ve witnessed some truly historic occasions, with some terrible tragedies interspersed amongst triumphs and excitement; many sad losses but, ever balancing them, some incredible tales and achievements across the front pages of the media.
In the grand scheme of things, then, the breaking news last week of the
impending retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United Football Club
manager for the past twenty-six years, doesn’t bear that much significance. After
all, all things considered, football’s only a game, and if there’s one thing
that University has taught me so far, it’s that life at Southampton can often
be too busy, fruitful and exciting to notice such matters anyhow!
Yet amidst a flurry of final pre-examination coursework deadlines, the
story somehow struck a particular chord with me and led me into reflection.
I’ve grown up loving all things to do with football, following United through
their various highs and lows (although admittedly it’s been mostly highs in my
lifetime!) and, as a result, Sir Alex Ferguson and the club are synonymous to
me – I struggle to imagine one without the other!
He’s a man who has delivered, through his unparalleled knowledge,
leadership and longevity, a great deal of happy memories to me and millions of
other fans of the team, and after his final match on Sunday afternoon he’ll be
sorely missed – although not so much in Southampton, where I’ll be enjoying an
electric atmosphere with some friends at the final game of the season!
Come Sunday afternoon, St Mary’s Stadium will be awash with colour
and buzzing
with activity; I can’t wait to witness it!
But the main reason I think the news particularly resonated with me is because it marks the end of a chapter I never quite imagined would conclude. The changing of a post I’ve always associated with one man acted as a timely reminder to me that no matter how occupied I keep myself in Southampton, the wider world is still active and circumstances are ever changing.
Just as Flo was initially shocked when she discovered she’ll be moving
home soon, Ferguson’s retirement demonstrated that, approaching the end of my
second year in Southampton and thus the halfway point of my course, things rarely
remain constant... well, except perhaps my love of beans on toast, that is!
Despite the proximity of my twenty-first (eek!) birthday it remains my speciality
in the kitchen, so I’m planning to add “learn to cook” to the to-do list for
next year...!
But on a broader scale, I now find myself looking to the future by
selecting modules for my third year of studies (the first time you’re able to
do this on the Software Engineering course), researching them to try and figure
out what I’d find most interesting and how their varying workloads are
staggered.
Furthermore, in the next week or so I’ll be working towards finding a
suitable supervisor for my Third Year Project (3YP), the Electronics and Computer
Science equivalent of a dissertation, and then I’ll have to deduce a topic area
to actually research and work on over twelve months. I reckon that part of me,
perhaps out of sheer nerves, has always assumed the day of such a monumental
academic demand would never arrive! But now it’s arrived, I’m excited to test
what I can achieve across such an extended timescale.
With the focus of my studies now shifting away from the provision of a
fundamental Computer Science skillset, it instead will consist of the elective
modules and bespoke project I’ve selected, as my education takes on a new level
of independence. So these final few weeks before summer holidays, packed with revision,
exams, post-exam socialising (as always a greatly exciting prospect!) and “Fergie
time”, may have the feel of the end of an era about them.
But as always when one door closes, another opens, and there’s always
plenty to look forward to. Not only am I eagerly anticipating the multitude of
academic challenges sure to follow, but I’m also excited by the prospect of my greatest
theatrical project yet. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve managed to assemble an
enthusiastic production team and secure the performance rights to direct a play
which many view as a cornerstone of British theatre, Peter Shaffer’s
controversial thriller Equus, for the
University’s Theatre Group, to be performed at the Annex Theatre at the end of
October (keep an eye out for audition information if you’d be interested in
getting involved!).
It’s certainly an ambitious endeavour, but it has the potential to be a
superb advertisement of the society’s talent and drive and is a fantastic test
for all involved – to quote a member at our meeting, if all goes to plan, we’d
love the show to “send ripples across the Students’ Union”!
So with the excitement of Edinburgh on the horizon, the huge creative
and technical challenges of Equus to manage, and the demands of a Third-Year
Project and elective modules to undertake, 2013 life in Southampton shows no
signs of slowing down – I just wonder if the rest of the world can keep up!
And, should I find the time, I’ll have a new Manchester United manager
to get behind!
Robin
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