Third year here we go!
Hello everyone – I’m back!
Firstly, I’d like to apologise for not posting any blogs over the summer. I did intend to, but the months simply slipped by before I knew it! I had an incredibly busy summer as I was working full time for most of it, plus trying to organise society events and admin ahead of the start of the new year.
Luckily I did have a few weeks to rest before term started (when I say rest, I mainly mean cracking on with the huge pile of reading that third year brings with it), but now I’m back, and third year has begun, and once more I am already caught up in a crazy whirlwind of activity. I am SO BUSY, but I love it and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’m really happy with the modules I’m taking this year as I think they play really well to my strengths and the topics I’m most interested in. It’s my third and final year so I wanted to make sure I was studying things I would really enjoy. This year I’ve also been able to push my modules even further towards the Creative Writing side of my degree, as that’s where I’m most comfortable. I’m taking Practice of Fiction, which continues to develop our skills in both reading and writing contemporary fiction; Shakespeare and Selected Dramatists, a literature module which I’ve really been looking forward to because you get to study the plays in such depth; The Marriage Plot, a one-term hybrid literature and creative writing module which looks at the happy endings of literary romance from the eighteenth century to the present day; Writing Out Loud, another one-term module where I will get to put my new-found skills in performance poetry to good use; and the Personal Writing Project, which is the creative writing version of a dissertation, and involves me working on a project of my own across the year with the help of a supervisor. All in all, exciting stuff!
I have seven contact hours this year – two 1 hour lectures, two 1.5 hour seminars, and one 2 hour seminar. This doesn’t include meetings for PWP as these are up to me to organise and aren’t scheduled into my timetable. Of course, my degree does require a lot more work than those seven hours, so I usually come into campus about 10am regardless of my timetable as I find that I can focus a lot better at uni than if I’m sitting at home. However, the flexible nature of an English degree does lend itself well to making the most of the many opportunities on offer at university, and this year I’m pushing it to the max as I’m involved in so many things I almost can’t keep count – with three part time jobs, President of the Writing Society, a newly-elected SSLC position, as well as being a leader at a local Rainbow unit, and a member of The Senior Section… So I’m keeping myself pretty busy!
Starting third year is incredibly daunting as there isn’t the safety net of another year on the horizon and soon I’m going to have to start making some decisions about what I want to do after I graduate – but for now I’m trying not to think about that, and concentrating instead on enjoying all of the amazing opportunities I have here at Warwick while I can…
I still can’t figure out how to rotate photos on this blogging platform (not very helpful, I know – I’m sorry) – but to give you an idea of what third year is like, here’s my reading pile for Term 1!
