Blog: Back To School

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Last night, after months of FEAR, DREAD, WORRY and PANIC it was FINALLY time for me to start my MA in Creative Writing (Playwriting and Screenwriting) at City University. As you might gather, I was UTTERLY TERRIFIED.

I'd worked myself into SUCH a state about it that I'd been having trouble BREATHING last week, and THIS week had ended up Proper Poorly and off work! All sorts of emotions had been churned up - memories of all the other times I'd started at new jobs, schools, or place of higher education; the stress of meeting huge numbers of new people and trying not to act like a pillock; the fact that it really IS a whole new chapter of my life, and the other fact that it marks, if not a CLOSURE, then definitely a quietening down for the whole ROCK AND ROLL thing that has partly DEFINED my life for two decades. FEAR!

I rolled up at campus 90 minutes early, to make sure I had time to finish registration and get my Student Card... which took approx 2 minutes, leaving me to sit in Costa Coffee and STEW for ages, reading "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" off of the reading list. It isn't the JOLLIEST or most distracting of reads.

Eventually it was time to go to the induction, and I got a bit lost. Luckily I found a couple of other course members, also lost, asking for directions, and together we headed off to the correct room. One of the big early indications that this would be a good course had been the excellent organisation at all points (I reckon that a good department that actually cares about the students will also take the time to sort out their SIGNAGE - I was amazed by how some other courses I visited didn't seem to give a toss) so was a bit surprised when we arrived to find a room much too small without enough seats. "I didn't expect so many people!" said the lady inducting us into the library, which seemed odd, given there was a course list, but otherwise all was WELL.

Everything else is so MODERN and FUTURISTIC - especially compared to when I did my first degree at Leicester Poly in 1988 (AD), when it was all handwritten essays, submission slips and the occasional floppy disk - that I was surprised to find that things like Inter-Library Loans are still considered a BIG DEAL. Surely it's all done with wi-fi and brain holograms?

Next we had an induction into the Electronical Student Materials Wotsit which is even MORE FUTURISTIC. As ever in ANYTHING in Higher Education involving computers a) some grumpy undergraduates had to be turfed out before we could start b) half the big flashy presentation screens didn't work, but once we got going it was all pretty impressive. These days, it turns out, you submit work by UPLOADING a WORD DOCUMENT (in two different ways for this lot too, so if one breaks you can't use it as an excuse for being late). The icon for this was a hand clutching a sheet of paper, which reminded me once more of floppy disks, appearing on the computer icon for "SAVE" - an image which will quickly lose its association with an actual THING and just come to MEAN what it used to represent.

Whilst pondering this I had a look at the timetable for the term, and was TERRIFIED to discover that there's a play we HAVE to go and see before next Wednesday. PANIC ROSE when I discovered that it WASN'T ON ANY MORE! TERROR! WORST NIGHTMARES! I became instantly convinced that EVERYONE ELSE already knew this and had been to see it and I'd be the only one who hadn't and IGNOMINY would follow. ARRGH!

Luckily it turned out that someone else had spotted this and pointed it out, so we've been given a different play to see - but still before next Wednesday! This FIRM INSTRUCTION came during the final section, about the course itself. It was all a bit odd to suddenly have people saying "YOU MUST DO THIS THING" with no discussion. It was like... well, being back at school really. We also got some other HOMEWORK, a writing exercise that has to be completed by Saturday night. It felt like we were being unapologetically LOBBED into everything, with no excuses. It was DEAD exciting!

We finished off with an "Icebreaking Exercise", a phrase which had filled me with SHEER DREAD when I'd first seen it, but turned out to be ACE. We were put into pairs and interviewed each other, then went through the whole room reporting back. Apparently it's fairly common, and I can see why - it REALLY worked in getting everyone to talk about someone else and finding out about each other. One of my (many, many) worries before starting had been that I'd be one of three or four mature students on the course, and that everyone else would be KIDS straight off an undergraduate course, but this turned out to be FAR from the case. It turns out we're a HUGELY mixed group from all over the world with all kinds of different EXPERIENCE and STORIES. As we went round the room I felt myself finally shifting from FEAR to EXCITEMENT. "This," i found myself thinking, "Is going to be GRATE!"

I'd told Harry, my interviewer, that An Interesting Thing About Me was that I knew The Maths Teacher Who Ran Off With His Student - I ended up having to clarify this situation SEVERAL times, I've just done a few gigs with him, that's all! Harry turned out to have been to the Edinburgh Fringe a few times too, so we had a good chat about all that. Again, I was surprised to find performers, former musicians and ALL sorts among the group. I'd pretty much expected everyone else to be fey whey-faced POETS or something - I guess Those Sorts went on the other, less Rock & Roll courses. My lot are ACE!

This opinion was only REINFORCED by the final part of the evening: THE PUB. Our course leaders bought EVERYONE a drink, and we all lurked together having a CHAT. In these situations I'm always aware of how hard I find it being A Normal Grown-Up - INDEED i spent large parts of the entire evening, from 6pm onwards, IGNORING my BRANE when it kept saying "Here's a really clever [actually IDIOTIC] remark you could make! Say THIS!" - but hopefully I didn't show myself up too much, and ended up talking to some a) dead nice b) really INTERESTING people.

It was all, in fact, BLOODY LOVELY, and I came away HUGELY excited by what's about to happen. It looks like it's going to be ridiculously BUSY, especially for the next couple of months, but a LOT of fun. I can't quite believe it's actually HAPPENING at last!

posted 27/9/2012 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Yay for Hibbett! Hope the course goes swimmingly for you :-)
posted 27/9/2012 by Ray

You'll be fine!
posted 27/9/2012 by Charlie Flowers

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