Halfway through

It seems to me that the amount of time it took for my Bachelor’s program to reach the halfway point passed by in the blink of an eye. Why, it was only yesterday that, being a “fresher”, I came one hour late to my first lecture because I was afraid of losing my way and coming late.

Of course it wasn’t yesterday – it was more than a year and a half ago, before that one period of life when so much happened. Minor and major changes took place worldwide, in my personal life and in my academic world, and it was them that made time fly so fast.

In recent months, my studies were full of deadlines for handing in assignments such as essays and presentations. Exams are taken at most universities and other higher education institutions during this period, and it is during this time that professors assign us this kind of work. As I said previously, we will not be taking exams in two subjects even at the end of the academic year; instead, we work on full year projects, usually divided into several parts, in teams of three or four students.

For example, we launched a project where our team assignment is to devise a new form of a fast food chain with a great deal of enthusiasm. I find this project interesting and instructional and, most of all, I enjoy my involvement. The overall task is to devise the type of product, create its design, name it and give it a logo, predict revenue and costs, find premises and suitable furniture and other stuff useful for this type of place, prepare its business plan and much more. The end result should be a potentially viable enterprise. While we have managed a lot so far, we still have a lot of work to do.

My mandatory “school joys” now include Spanish lessons, which I have decided to continue learning and which I enjoy increasingly more. I am also in for an interview regarding my volunteering at a healthcare facility here in Brighton where I take care of patients with mental disorders and degenerative diseases.

Over the last few months, a lot of my second year schoolmates were busy looking for internships for the next academic year, and if they’re admitted they will not go to school. They will spend the whole year as interns and won’t start their third academic year until next year.

I decided not to apply for an internship, so I will soon have to choose my electives for next year. Four of our subjects are mandatory, and then we choose two out of six available. All of them are very tempting, so choosing will not be easy at all.

Easter holidays are due in a few weeks, and then there’ll be just exams, so please wish me luck, and this is it from me for now.