For those wanting the bare facts: 60 hpw max, 42 hpw in-term average, 2.i. with a slight pure bias.
For those wanting the bear facts: The bear is Berlin's official symbol, and pinnipeds are their closest living relatives.
Anyway, it is predictably strange to think that I'm a third of the way through my degree already. I've met some great people, learnt a lot of life lessons, and picked up a fair bit of maths along the way. If anyone out there is interested, below is my experience of my first year at Cambridge University, reading Mathematics.
Having already posted about Freshers, I'll simply mention that it was a hectic but enjoyable few days in which I met a few people whom I now consider among my closest friends, and a lot more who I haven't spoken to since. The few weeks after that were surprisingly easy academically; I expected to be pushed more than I was and so quite comfortably kept up with the pace and workload.
Apart from academics, I became increasingly involved with the Christian Union and made a few friends there, settled down in the wonderful City Church, and also solidified friendships I'd made early on in term. The glamour of Cambridge wore off far too quickly, though every now and again it would dawn on me afresh and I'd feel (albeit momentarily) extremely peaceful, and thankful to be there. Those moments really made the toil of applying and getting in feel worth it!
Five weeks in I started to struggle with the problems we were being set. I guess this was my academic "hitting the wall" experience; "better sooner than later" I was told. Only now am I beginning to believe it. The experience taught me how to work hard, but did little to teach me how to work well. Unfortunately I didn't learn that until a while later, and so the rest of that term I spent driving myself into the ground, with long hours put in and not much progress being made. In the midst of this God was teaching me to be generous with what I have, and I was slowly learning.
Having just about survived the first term, I initially welcomed the Christmas holidays as a chance to relax and meet up with old friends from home. Soon, though, I missed the communal feel of University life and felt strangely "homesick" and isolated. That feeling was soon overridden by a sudden panic as I realised that I had four less days than I had planned to do all of my holiday work in, leaving me with not much time at all!
But no matter. Work could sort itself out (jokes, I hit the caffeine and got through it in time) because it was time for Houseparty! House-party, in case you were wondering, is neither a party, nor is it located in a house. It's basically the Christian Union's main camp-thingy, and it was great. I met some absolute legends, had some invaluable teaching on how to use the Bible to pray, and participated in my first Ceilidh - of course, leaving plenty of room for the Holy Spirit at (almost) all times.
God also answered a particular prayer of mine in a rather mind-blowing way while I was there, which has actually been the most objective evidence (personal) that I have of His imminence! I've been meaning to objectively pin down the probability that the sequence of events happened by chance, but for now I've documented the events it in detail and am putting it off until I become sufficiently unbiased. More on that to come though, as I'm expecting a follow-up sequence of events.
Any-who, after that I was flung straight into nine weeks of not having a clue what was going on academically. Luckily I was so confused that I didn't catch on how little of a clue I had until it was nearly over. I worked pretty hard, but in a really inefficient way. But by the end of the term I had learnt my lesson and realised that it was essential to attempt to understand the material before banging my head against questions for hours.
In the midst of the academic downfall, however, I seemed to be enjoying myself. Having felt quite overwhelmed with the privileges granted me at Cambridge it was nice to be able to give a bit back by joining Streetbite - a student run society helping to feed the city's homeless. CU stuff also took on a higher priority, especially in the "main event" mission week of the year in which the CU put on a series of evangelical talks. It was amazing to see everyone pull together to make everything happen in the middle of quite a busy term, and increased my resolve to be a part of the community.
The Easter holidays were more bearable as I could fill any large gaps of potential boredom with procrastination in preparation for the exams ahead, which made me feel very much in my own territory. I survived the horrific ordeal that was giving up chocolate for lent. My goodness that taught me a lot about myself. Namely how pathetically gluttonous and lacking in self control I am! Also, eating chocolate still feels slightly morally wrong now, which is strange. Though I haven't let it slow me down too much.
Onto exam term; it was actually very enjoyable. Though I had not studied particularly effectively the previous two terms, the sheer volume of work counted for enough to mean that I had little cause to panic, and I had also learnt enough from it to ensure productive work leading up to the exams. So the lead up to exams felt pretty chilled, and I managed to keep a healthy work-work-work-CU-work balance.
This was pretty fortunate, as I had been granted the privilege of helping to head up the worship team which turned out to be both a huge learning experience, and a massive blessing. Alongside that it was great to see God working in a few "prayer, praise and prophecy" events a few of us started up. On an unrelated note, after a lot of deliberation, conversations, and conscience-guidance I decided to become a pescetarian.
Though I did work pretty hard in exam term, pulling one 60 hour week just before the exams started, this was more because I was enjoying the process of "it all coming together", and actually being able to focus on learning - as opposed to my priority being appeasing my supervisor by handing in something that vaguely resembled the work of a student who actually had the faintest idea of what the questions are asking.
Exams came and went. I quite enjoyed them to be honest. The pressure of having to reach a certain grade was just non-existent; it was more a case of seeing how I did with mild interest, so as to give myself targets for subsequent years! They all went roughly as expected, but the last one went particularly well for me so - in a moment of sheer dizzying excess - I decided to celebrate by doing a bit of set theory.
After I had come to my senses, it was time for a week of sunshine, socialising and partying. So I hid in my room. Unfortunately, however, I was eventually teased out on the night of the Jesus May Ball. Fearing that I would be kicked out of my accommodation (a fear unwarranted, as it transpired) I had signed up to work through the night for this a few weeks prior to the ball. Luckily it turned out to be a rather fun way to spend an evening, and I plan to do the same next year!
After that we all said our teary goodbyes and departed to the ends of the Earth, some of us never to return. Well actually I ended up going back to Coventry, which was a slight disappointment. Anyway, that has been the last nine months of my life in summary. Hope it's been a mildly interesting scroll for you; if any of it begs more questions do feel free to chat to me about it over the interwebs or in person, cause I have a lot of free time these days...
Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment