When my dear old mother went to
Cambridge University in the ‘70’s, there was a ratio of one female to
every ten guys. Instead of watching Jeremy Kyle all day, she and her
technology-free friends organised fun, charitable events with their
college societies. At night they stayed up drinking port and “putting
the world to rights”. No wonder my life is such a depressing concept to
her…
In the marvellously hectic year of 2011, the student reputation is more typically similar to that of the sloth. We sleep, a LOT. We drink, a LOT. And the great majority of us do very little else. At the Brookes fresher’s fair I was a Keen-Bean and signed up to pretty much every society going (because who wouldn’t want all the free pens and lemons they can get?), but these days I don’t think I know anyone at Uni who holds the magical combination of: a) being part of a society; b) which regularly organises meetings; and c) which they actually regularly attend. Sure, there are a couple of successful organisations at Brookes, but it’s really rather pitiful compared to the Good Ol’ Days of Yore…
As much as my mother might disagree, this lazy, vegetative state we students find ourselves in is definitely not our fault. (At least, it makes me feel better to think so…). It is the fault of all the big, evil entertainment sources, such as Facebook, I-player and COD, which programme us into thinking we need and must have our quota of trash every day- and make us feel cheated if we don’t. I have my moments of guilt (“What am I doing with my life?! My biggest achievement in life will be getting on an episode of ‘Bargain Hunt’! What if I can’t even get on ‘Bargain Hunt’?!”), but then I remind myself that actually, it’s ok to sleep for 15 hours a day. When else in my life will I have the time and luxury to spend an entire day watching ‘24’ and toasting and eating an entire loaf of bread as an afternoon ‘snack’?
All this conservation of physical energy just means we can stay out longer at night, surely? To try and reach those expectations of the modern student to roll home half naked at 5am, covered in a combination of someone else’s blood and burger sauce? Pfft, give me some cheesy chips and a cup of tea, I say. It’s past midnight and I need to be up before 4pm tomorrow…
Written for The Afternoon View
In the marvellously hectic year of 2011, the student reputation is more typically similar to that of the sloth. We sleep, a LOT. We drink, a LOT. And the great majority of us do very little else. At the Brookes fresher’s fair I was a Keen-Bean and signed up to pretty much every society going (because who wouldn’t want all the free pens and lemons they can get?), but these days I don’t think I know anyone at Uni who holds the magical combination of: a) being part of a society; b) which regularly organises meetings; and c) which they actually regularly attend. Sure, there are a couple of successful organisations at Brookes, but it’s really rather pitiful compared to the Good Ol’ Days of Yore…
As much as my mother might disagree, this lazy, vegetative state we students find ourselves in is definitely not our fault. (At least, it makes me feel better to think so…). It is the fault of all the big, evil entertainment sources, such as Facebook, I-player and COD, which programme us into thinking we need and must have our quota of trash every day- and make us feel cheated if we don’t. I have my moments of guilt (“What am I doing with my life?! My biggest achievement in life will be getting on an episode of ‘Bargain Hunt’! What if I can’t even get on ‘Bargain Hunt’?!”), but then I remind myself that actually, it’s ok to sleep for 15 hours a day. When else in my life will I have the time and luxury to spend an entire day watching ‘24’ and toasting and eating an entire loaf of bread as an afternoon ‘snack’?
All this conservation of physical energy just means we can stay out longer at night, surely? To try and reach those expectations of the modern student to roll home half naked at 5am, covered in a combination of someone else’s blood and burger sauce? Pfft, give me some cheesy chips and a cup of tea, I say. It’s past midnight and I need to be up before 4pm tomorrow…
Written for The Afternoon View
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