You know you're a true final year student when you can write at length about your time spent in the Library. I live there now. On the third floor, overlooking the Meadows. It's quite a nice place to be actually - peaceful, sunny, warm. If I wasn't there to read 50 page chapters on the make-up of China's government apparatus, it would be almost enjoyable.
I plan my days in advance - write a list, pack a lunch, and head straight there after a lecture, or when I wake up, or after a morning run. Last weekend I spent more time in the Library than I did in my own house. Well, there's no point in going unless you're going to spend at lease 5 hours.
Oh. My. God. What has happened to me?! I've turned into a zombie, quite literally, with no real substance to my life besides reading and going for 'coffee breaks' with my fellow libra...rians? Sometimes I find myself dressing up to go to the Library, you know, in case I find a cute guy, going through the same emotional, studious turmoil as myself, so we can reminisce about our days of freedom, now long gone. Shoot me now.
Ok, it's not as bad as all that (obviously, as I would have stopped going there). I used to abhor the Library, but I find my misconceptions were mainly based on having to use a printer during exam or essay period, where the place is full to bursting with panicky, confused 1st and 2nd years, and Rahs who have only started writing their essays at 9:35, when it's due in for 12:00. I get quite a lot done there, but I find I'm slowly turning into one of those dickhead Library connoisseurs, who takes no little pleasure in complaining about the lack of understanding Library noobs show for proper 'quiet-time' study. Honestly though - last week, this Spanish guy started a Skype conversation (in Spanish) with his mother/girlfriend (it was a woman, and I heard I love you a couple of times) in the MIDDLE of the study area. Get out! Frankly, I was appalled, as was one of the many guys sitting around me, who then got up to express his displeasure (in a whisper). The Spanish dude was forced to remove himself from the area, and the rest of us were appropriately mollified. The cheek of it! He could have just gone downstairs to have this conversation - there's a whole area of the Library dedicated to it! It was 8 o'clock and there were only a few of us around, but still, manners please!
I try and keep some links with the real world though. I take Mondays off to do other things, like write this post and attend debate soc, but even as I write, the list of things I need to do appears in reams before my eyes. It never grows, this list, but I find it doesn't shrink either. The turnover of tasks to be completed is quite impressive - from normal work, to society stuff, to attending volunteering meetings, to normal work, to dissertation, exercise and self-study (because if you remember, as I so often forget, I'm studying a language!). I'm sure I have the same amount to do as most people, and I don't do half as many extra-curriculars as my flatmates, but somehow I'm sure it all balances out somewhere, and most of the time it just feels like more.
Oh, and applications for Law have just opened. As in, right now. Hum.
Wow, this just turned into a rant, didn't it? I'm sorry I had to take it out on you guys, but I find that I have no time to actually talk to any of my friends. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go read up about Libor...
Xxx
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