My Three Years in Lancaster

My original intention for this article was to simply recap the day of graduation itself, but as I was writing it really did get away from me. Graduation was a day of such huge significance - the end of an era, for me personally - that inevitably a veritable myriad of thoughts and memories have been raked to the surface. The article, then, now serves the dual purpose of talking about my day as a graduand, and briefly overviewing my three years at university; in my various flats and with my various flatmates. It may be self-indulgent, but hey, it's my blog!

So, to start at the start (for that it usually where things start) let us begin with freshers week; during the last week of September, 2007. I came to Lancaster with really no idea what to expect. The whole lifestyle was always going to be a bit of a shock - having only turned 18 a month before, clubs were pretty new to me and going out once a week was only just becoming routine. Luckily, living alone (or at least independently) was something I had already had to adjust to, so when I arrived I was full of nervous excitement, rather than fear. The first thing (after unpacking) was to meet my flatmates (Liam, Becci, Becki, Andy, Laura, Ben, Frankie, Lois), and shortly after my freshers reps. For the first week these guys were my only friends, along with Louise from back home and her two flatmates, Jack and Hannah. Fine by me though, everyone was pleasant enough. Our reps weren't exactly the life of the party but they did have one redeeming quality: they introduced me to Kings, perhaps the greatest game ever invented. Ever. Have a quick gander of some pictures of (young, innocent, relatively uncorrupted) me and my friends in freshers week:

Our second night of Kings!

Me and the girls.

See how I pull a weird face in both photos? I couldn't find one without me doing one really... I do that a lot. Anyway... aside from the horrific shock to the system all the alcohol brought (I was pissed after about 5 ciders then), Freshers Week passed fairly uneventfully. One episode of major significance however: Jack encouraged me to come with him to a trial session for County FC (our college football team). I was reluctant at first, I had hardly played football at a competitive level before and I knew I wasn't fantastic, but he persisted and after a while I relented... and I am so glad I did! Over the last three years County FC has been a keystone of my university experience. Back then the three captains were Terry Jepson, Chris Dormer and Chris Grace. The third years (particularly to a naive fresher like myself) were an enigma - undoubtedly the maddest people I had ever come across, anything I had ever been told to avoid at university if I wanted to get a good degree was manifested in them... so naturally, I wanted to be just like them. After a few trials (strangely having decided I was a centre back, despite never having played in that position before) I found myself playing fairly consistently for the C-Team, which was certainly fine by me. But I digress...

Christmas was interesting at university. I'd spent the previous one on my own, which wasn't very enjoyable, so it was nice to be surrounded by people on this holiday. Andy cooked us up a huge meal for dinner a few days before we left, and I experienced my first "Christmas Ball". Here are a few pictures of both:

An excellent plate full.

Dylan, Andy and myself in a downing competition. I won ^.-

Academically, first year wasn't particularly testing. I did Psychology and Universe as an Art as minors. Psychology was boring, and I didn't go to the lectures. UAAA was brilliant, they turned all the lights off and showed colourful pictures of stars; I napped a lot in these lectures. I sort of stumbled my way through first year playing a fair bit of football, doing a minimal amount of work and spending a ridiculous amount of money on drinking.

Second year was similar, but one huge change was the people. Some of the best friends I have ever made I was lucky enough to meet this year, and I was introduced to a good number of them in Freshers Week. "Our" reps (undoubtedly a better bunch than the previous year) brought the houses next door into ours, and I acted as an unofficial (and certainly less responsible) rep to them, I guess. Anyway, you know the usual freshers week story: lots of drink, dancing and hangovers.

The group.

Me and Tim

First football social of the year

Some fun highlights of the year were our Halloween party where the theme seemed to be dress like an idiot (see below for me and Owen looking particularly horrific), the football socials and bar golf. Some pictures, before I forget myself:

We dress like this all the time.

Wingman

Owen, Me and Adam doing... something, at bar golf.

I still hadn't really got the hang of going to lectures. About once every two months I'd have this big worry that I wasn't going to enough, turn up to all of them for about two days, and then slowly my attendance would drop off again. My grades weren't poor enough to panic me, though essay deadline week was always hell. In my second term, I had 6 days to write 4 essays, including research. All-nighter followed all-nighter

Third year was a little different to the previous two, in that instead of living with the girls (I had lived with Becci and Becki for two years!) I decided to live with some friends from football instead. Sharing a flat with Sonko, Eddie, Greg and Mike has certainly been an illuminating experience. Never before have I lost entire days to decade-old computer games, or been forced to play the role of a middle-eastern nation as the USA (Eddie) issues pre-emtive strikes in case I am harbouring any WMD's (Sorry; in-joke!). I met some great freshers this year too (Mitch, Sophie, Gemma, Jo to name just a few) and this really has been a reoccurring theme over my years here. I'll have to make an appearance next year as an 'old boy' to meet some more! The workload in third year has been heavier and the socials less frequent (though by no means irregular). Living away from the girls wasn't as weird as I thought it would be (I still saw Becci and the girls a few times a week) and it was nice spending so much time playing football and engaged in meaningless man-talk. One thing I did do a fair bit this year was take holidays - I was lucky enough to visit Amsterdam, Dublin and Barcelona within 3 months of each other. Rather than drag this year out with more stories of drinking, football and other such nonsense I will try and conclude by saying that although different it was just as good a year at university as any. A few highlights:

Grad Ball, with some of my many hoes.

Becci, Me, Dom and Kat at the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin.

Joe, Greg, Sonko and Me preparing one of many Bins O' Death!

After my exams and results day I spent a few more care-free weeks living on campus with my friends before the inevitable... Graduation. What a strange day it was... after reluctantly shelling out £34 on robes designed to make me look as daft as possible, I and my peers acted as the centrepiece to a strangely formal ceremony, where we officially recieved our degrees. It began with a slow procession through the Great Hall, accompanied by organ music; we were then treated to an inspiring speech by the University Dean and then went up one by one as our names were called to shake hands with the Dean and make our parents proud. I simply cannot describe how serious the ceremony was - you really had to be there. The pomp and ceremony was fine though, and I bought into the seriousness of it all with a 'it's a once in a lifetime event' kind of mentality, but when the ceremony was concluded with the college officials rising and belting out the national anthem I couldn't help but snicker a little. A few photographs, hugs and stiff handshakes later, it was all over and the realisation that my time as an undergraduate really had finished set in and had to be confronted - it wasn't pleasant.

This blog has been really long and still covers only a tiny snippet of life in Lancaster. In keeping it short I have missed out loads of people (some, like Lee, who I have seen basically every day for the whole three years!) but it is nothing personal, I promise - if I did stretch to include all the great people I've known here this would be more like a book than an article! It's been an amazing three years here nonetheless. Highs (friends, football, socials, results, spending my time and the governments money on doing nothing and enjoying myself) and lows (rare moments of work, deanery disciplinarys, fights and fallings-out, debt, stress, panic); I wouldn't change any of them for all the world.

Bye Lancaster. It really has been fantastic. One last thing to remember me by,

This is Owen's butter. If you are reading this Owen, I am sorry.

Chris

Results Day

So, today is results day! Being a history student makes things a bit easier - no half modules, and everything is equally weighted. Somewhat of a concern was my second year minor subject (Psychology), which was split into two 'half-units', Social Psychology and Developmental Psychology. I always hated Dev. and as a result did no work for it all year, causing me to get a shite mark (52) in that particular module. I contacted my department, concerned that this unit would drag my overall mark down considerably and after giving them a little "personal difficulties in exam period" bullshit they agreed to waive that module and allow Social to stand as a full, independent module. This aside it really is straightforward; 8 modules totalled 524, giving an average of 65.5. That's it then - three years of my life traded against a rather average 2:1. From the looks of it, I never really threatened to get any other classification, but given my admittedly poor effort levels, I can't really complain. Transcript below:

Course	Weight	Credit	Year	Title	Grade	Exam		Other		Overall
HIST259	1.00	30	08/09	The First World War	IIi	65		71		67
HIST261	1.00	30	08/09	Consensus or Conflict?: Change and Continuity in the Culture, Society and Politics of the United States, 1789-1989	IIi	59		67		62
HIST267	1.00	30	08/09	Life at the Edge: Britain, Europe and the Colonial Experience c.1550 - c.1670	IIi	63		68		65
PSYC203	1.00	30	08/09	Social Psychology	IIi	63		68		64
HIST248	1.00	30	09/10	Men, Women and Warfare: Twentieth-Century Experiences	IIi	62		68		64
HIST300	1.00	30	09/10	Dissertation	I			70		70
HIST364i	1.00	30	09/10	'The Shock of the New': Modernity and the Modernisms of American Culture, 1877-1919	IIi	66		66		66
HIST364ii	1.00	30	09/10	F'The Shock of the New': Modernity and the Modernisms of American Culture, 1877-1919	IIi	66		67		66

The Banking Crisis

Given the snappy and surely familiar title, one could be forgiven for assuming that this is an intelligent and informed shot across the bow of the government, concerning yet another development in the fiscal, political-economic drama that has been unfolding since Lehmen Bros collapsed in 2008. In this climate, it makes more sense than anything else in fact. But it isn't.

Actually, it is an entirely personal (and probably less dramatic on a national scale) incident that concerns me, and brings the metaphorical pen to hand. I just had a phone call from Janice, ringing on behalf of Natwest, to deliver some not-so-wonderful news. My overdraft (standing at £1599.01 DR) is being recalled. Considering that I have no money and expected a good year to pay this back, I am in somewhat of a quandary. You see, it turns out that I have violated the terms and conditions of our 'agreement' somewhere along the line, giving them the right to withdraw my overdraft facility at any time. The clause they deemed me to have violated stipulates that "All student loan payments must be made into this account", and due to a mix-up with a payment made in 2008 I had had my second year's Michaelmas Term payment made into my other bank account instead. I tried to explain to Janice that this was an exception rather than the rule; was a good-faith mistake; and was made a bloody long time ago. The problem, readers, is that Janice is a heartless automaton employed by Natwest for her great advantage of having no apparent human emotions. A few dismissive "it's not my problem"'s and we are back to me having to find £1600 to fill Natwest's coffers.

With an element of desperation creeping into my speech, I try to thaw Janice's heart of ice and explain that I simply don't have any money with which to pay them back, and that rather reneging on my responsibilities, the very purpose of my gap year is to pay off any outstanding debts. Not even Cary Grant could draw an ounce of compassion from this woman, I swear. She began by saying "you should have thought about that before violating our terms and conditions" and then, ploughing through my panicked denials of intent, proceeded to deal out threats regarding my credit rating and interest rates. My only chance to save myself, apparently, is to reduce the outstanding debt by 10% in the next two business days, so looks like the parentals, Joe and Aaron are all getting an awkward and pleading phone call.

Always read the fine print guys. What will I do now? Time to relent and give Deal or No Deal? a ring methinks...

Chris

The Future

So, it turns out I am not creative. This much I had already suspected, but now it confronts me as an inescapable fact. You see, I took a test. The lovely career lady (I was assigned to a Miss Heather Tomlinson, and she really is lovely) asked me about a hundred questions to determine my 'personality characteristics', 'job and career suitability' and (I hoped) to tell me what I should do when I leave university. She concluded that:

• I am proficient 'system based' person who does well within an existing work superstructure. So basically I am good at climbing a career ladder, passing tests, learning and teaching. In a nutshell this means I am fairly boring, unlikely to rock any boats and tear away to make my millions on my own through inventing something or forming my own company; but instead I am destined to rise fairly swiftly up a corporate ladder, if money and material success is what I want.
• If I decide I don't want to sell my soul for money and power (tempting as though those outcomes may be) I could teach, promote, write or pursue further education.
• As soon as Heather mentioned writing, I started to ask my own questions. It turns out that this test has advised against any pursuit of creative expression (i.e. design, fictional writing) but at the same time recommends writing as a career choice. Baffling. To me and Heather, this implied a choice of non-fictional writing, journalism, publishing, editing or acting as a critic of some sort.

So I haven't learned much, or at least I was not really surprised by what I was told. The only thing I didn't expect was that the test seemed to think I would be bad at starting my own company, and also at writing fiction, as these are two things I have considered seriously in the past. But then again, it's only a test. A list of pre-determined questions surely don't know me as well as I know myself, and they can't really know what's best for me, can they? Maybe they can. I took the suggestions on board anyway, and have decided to pursue three of the options the 'suitability test' suggested simultaneously: I am going to continue education by doing a Masters, this time in business management in order to explore the corporate world a bit, and at the same time start to write more and hopefully get some more stuff published. A blog seems as good a place to start as any, anyway.

Chris