First Day Back at Big School

It's been a bit more than 3 months since I put down my pen in my last exam and set my sights for home for a long summer away from the textbooks and lecture theatres. Today it all started again and it's almost like I've never been away. My writing hand is a little stiff and my head still feels a stifle stuffy but I'm back and I'm where I belong again. Some people pine after time off so that they can 'relax' and do nothing with their endless days and, I must admit, at the end of the last academic year I was positively parched in the holiday sense. Speaking a few weeks ago you might have caught me saying that I didn't want to go back to university yet and that I felt that the holiday had flown past; looking at it now, I'm delighted to be back and, if anything, the holiday might just have been too long.

So I sat down in my lecture theatre today, pen at the ready surrounded by familiar faces from bygone months. Some were tanned from holidays in exotic places and even more were looking paler than I remembered from what has undoubtedly been a summer of sleeping during the day and venturing out at night. The one thing that I did sense from the room from everyone was a sense of anticipation; the almost palpable feeling of an eager group of intelligent adults all begging for information - just me? OK. The thing is that we're all now at an age when admitting to being excited to going back for another year of education doesn't make you a 'geek' or 'sad'. Anyone that says that they're not excited to get started at university again is either a liar or has made a seriously wrong decision in the last couple of years. Personally I'm delighted to be back listening to some of the brightest minds in the legal world because I see myself being one of them one day - well some of them anyway!

The highlight of my day today (which possibly makes me a little sad) was my tutorial sign-up for one of my courses. It's all done online and it goes 'live' at 1.30pm on the dot. Picture a group of students huddled around a few laptops, almost slavering as the seconds melt away slowly until that moment of elation when you are able to sign-up for the most hallowed of time slots. It's sadly one of the only ways that we can get a kick this early on in the year but I must admit that the novelty soon wears off and the inevitable frustration of being stuck with a really early or late time quickly follows. I must mention that I was asked by an anonymous reader to write the tutorial sign-up part of this post in a slightly different style, highlighting the whoops of joy and the groans and moans. I must, however, duly decline the opportunity on the grounds of not wanting to appear disgusting - let's be honest it wouldn't have made for pretty reading.

So that was my first day back at university and I'll repeat what I said before: I'm super glad to be back and to have something useful to do with my time. Doubtless it'll get to the end of November and I'll start to dream of the Christmas holidays and the temporary freedom which they shall yield but for now I'm just chuffed to be taking notes again - and signing up for tutorials as well!

Thanks for reading and stay smart people,

Martin