Hopes and Fears for the Approaching Year

And so I join the final day of the month club.

It’s been a busy and repetitive month of May. Exams have come and gone but on the back of each one another is always looming. I get up and do revision every day with very little variation in the routine so there really hasn’t been much in the way of blog writing inspiration. In the end I decided that, rather than looking back at all the tedium, I would look ahead to what I hope next year may bring.

September is a long way off and we have a Summer to enjoy before the new academic year arrives but at the moment I think we’re all a little preoccupied with speculation. I normally wouldn’t have looked ahead much at all but optimism and pessimism seem to be constantly fighting in my head so I’m looking further and further ahead to try and find things to be positive about.

What I’m hoping for more than anything is lectures. They might not sound exciting but on my course (and particularly now that I’m done with taught labs) they are my main source of social interaction within the department.

Every lecturer in the past has started the first day of their module by stating something along the lines of, “Nothing can replace attending lectures in person,” and I couldn’t agree with that more. If nothing else, it’s been a long time since I’ve just had a proper discussion about the course content and I think it has shown in my understanding and retention of the material covered this year.

In the past there would always be quick conversations on the physics concourse between lectures and whether they were about the content of a lecture, some assignment due soon or just a general chat, that has been sorely missed this year. It’s not the same trying to discuss these things over text so I hope we can get back to in-person lectures and I hope that it’s not just small group teaching that is in-person next year. Not having seminars on the physics course this would basically be the same as saying everything is online anyway.

But, understandably, we have to see what the situation is at that point. I’m optimistic we’ll get back to normal but now lets indulge in a bit of a pessimism.

If we can’t get back to lectures I will definitely be changing up how I approached this last year. Hopefully we will still be able to organise some society social events and things on campus will remain open. If that’s the case I plan on making the most of being closer to campus again by getting out of my accommodation everyday and acting as normally as possible.

I have missed my routine this year and know that I’ll need it back if I’m going to make it through another year online. Like I said in the previous paragraph, I’ll be moving back closer to campus again next year and I’m looking forward to picking up on the little perks that that brings with it.

On top of all of this, moving into new accommodation with new people presents an opportunity to expand my social circle on campus which I’m quite excited about. I feel almost as if I’m going back into first year but with the peace of mind that comes with knowing my way around campus.

I have only been on campus three times all year so I do really look forward to being back because it was one of the reasons I chose Warwick in the first place.

Then there’s the final year project that I mentioned in my last post. We got sent the titles recently and, as much as that’s a daunting amount of work to be facing, I’m very excited for what we’ll be studying.

So there’s lots to look forward to and I hope that my final year will look something like I expected university to and more like first year than the last two. Of course, these are just my thoughts and I’m sure we each have our own little hopes that are getting us through the struggles at the moment so whatever they are, hold onto them and act on them when you can!

(And just for context, the image is just one I happen to like. Both the sunlight coming out from behind the clouds and the plane moving across in front have always seemed hopeful in their own way to my mind and that’s what I wanted to try and get across.)