Stepping up

And, with the final of my five exams now finished, that was second year! For the next three months or so, I’m now (relatively) free!

I struggle to even begin to describe how varied, challenging and life-changing the events of the previous nine months have been. You always hear about how University is meant to be an experience which yields the best days of your life, and when you’re constantly presented with fresh reasons to be enjoying yourself, it’s no wonder – halfway through my degree in Southampton, I’m not sure I could ever leave!

Taking on my first ever directing role was one such experience, 

and the joy and experience I’ve gained from it was invaluable!

So as Flo and Jo near the end of their own programmes, it’s a terrifying prospect to think that, a couple of years down the line, it’ll be my turn to depart the student bubble and enter the world of employment, hopefully having picked up enough knowledge along the way to make a mark on it.

For me, at least, I guess it’s one of those things you don’t particularly ever think of happening until realisation dawns that the time is approaching and then reality hits you. Being the youngest in my family, I was used to watching my brothers and sister go through the same hoops, from school to exams to moving away to University, mistakenly smug in thinking that such landmarks were so far away for me, they’d probably never arrive – although it didn’t quite work out that way, of course!

Whether it be going through GCSEs, A-Levels, drafting a UCAS personal statement, attending some University open days (which I’ve written about before and highly recommend!) or actually arriving, there are so many momentous occasions which we all went through and, from my perspective, which led to my arrival here, and although every of them one impressed rigorous demands on us at the time, I can confidently declare the end result has been well worth it.

Except, of course, it’s far from the end result because, with the completion of exams, the time has come to lay the foundations of a third year which promises to be my biggest academic challenge yet.

Once again, a third year project, the equivalent of a dissertation on other degree streams, isn’t a task I ever quite convinced myself I would arrive at, least of all begin working towards. But while having my first meeting with my supervisor, who researches in the Human-Computer Interaction field (which completely captivated me when I was studying it as part of the course), I only found myself getting even more intrigued and curious about the technological potential offered to me by the project, to the point of sheer excitement – excitement about a piece of work!

And as we discussed my supervisor’s research, talk soon turned to applying it to my personal interests which, if you’ve read any of my posts before, you’ll probably recognise as performance styles – an incredibly exciting prospect linking Computer Science to the hobby I love the most!

We considered using an “autonomous agent” (something which performs a task without requiring human help) to analyse the interactions between on-stage performers and the audience in some way, for example, and potential applications of this (such as the construction of a robotic performer), and, although I’ve still to narrow my ideas into something more tangible than a concept, I’m raring to get started.

What’s more, on the other side of the extracurricular fence going into third year, this week I’ve run nearly three days’ solid worth of auditions for Theatre Group’s October show Equus as part of its production team, emerging with a group of actors and actresses who promise to be absolutely sensational in a hopefully unmissable show. Some of the talent we saw ranked, in my mind, up there with the professional interpretations of the script I’ve seen, sending my spine tingling on more than one occasion, while simultaneously we saw plenty of new faces to the society who added a great deal to the table. I just wish we could have cast the play several times over!

Taking on such a classic piece of literature in the role of a co-director is yet another mammoth demand which promises to stretch our ability and imagination to the limit. But where else, if not the University of Southampton and its wonderful Students’ Union (SUSU), will I ever be surrounded by such a plethora of brilliant performers, and be under the wing of a system which financially and personally supports innovation and experimentation? Such opportunities rarely come around in people’s lifetimes, so to placate our determination to make the most of it, as a team we’re going to have to step up to the mark and deliver.

After all, come the end of October, and come the end of next year, despite all thoughts to the contrary, the University experience will, all things going well, have placed yet more feathers in my cap.

I wish that the time to leave would never come, but until it does, let’s make the most of it!

Robin