College of Rock!
So by my calculations, this is the....sixth week of college. I'm not quite sure, being an Arts student and never having to do maths again, I could well be wrong, but that's not really too important anyway. What you want to know (or maybe you don't, but I'm going to tell you anyway - feel free to stop reading if you want!) is what's college like? Is it worth the six months of hardcore studying, cramming, panicking and sweating that the...L-word entails?
Well...I hate to piss all over you're parade (because I'm such a nice guy), but college fucking R-O-C-K-S! It's great, there hasn't been a day yet when I haven't wanted to go. Going to classes is a completely different story of course, but I'll get onto that in a moment. The whole college scene in itself is just so cool - it's like a town within itself. It has everything we could ever need.
Well...ok, maybe "ever" is stretching it a little bit, but you can easily spend the whole day here. For the first three days of this week, I didn't leave the campus before 9.30 and even later. I know this may seem really weird to you lowly secondary school students, where you want to get out of school as quickly as is humanly possible. But it's not like that here, we have two pubs, where we more often than not retire to each evening (usually the Old Bar). We have about...6 places where you can get something to eat or drink, not including the shops. We get our papers cheaper here than out in the real world too - the Irish Times being only 70c and the English papers around 60c! We have a pool hall and our own library.
We even have a place where we can hang out without being pestered into buying stuff or about lotiering. Show me somewhere in town where you can do that, huh? Where is this freeloader heaven I hear you ask? Why, it's the Devere Hall in the Student Centre. It's where we gather every day to hang out, half-heartedly study, read the papers, practising juggling/poy-ing and so on. We also tend to eat there, though God tells us not to. Every so often his (though sometimes it's a her - which answers many theological questions) voice booms out across the hall, reminding us that "there is no food or drink allowed in the multi-functional hall or pool hall. Please use the bins provided!" But we're good little college students, we don't listen to God at all, we carry on in our merryily agnostic way eating our sandwiches, and drinking our coffee.
Now, to the classes. The subjects I'm taking (English, Irish, Philosophy and Polotics.....yeah, that's right, Polotics - the study of the mint with the hole!) are all pretty interesting...to varying degrees. That doesn't stop me skipping the odd lecture every once and a while. See the thing is with nobody chasing after you to go to classes, or do you're work, it's sink or swim. I'm pretty confident I'm not going to sink, but sometimes it's nice to just float though, take a little break. I'm not stressing myself out too much. Then again, those of you who know me, know I rarely do!
Then there are the other extra curricular activities, like the societies and clubs. Several people have joined the trampolining club, which is apparently "fucking great" but personally, I don't see the attraction in jumping really high into the hair and spinning - my feet happen to like the ground, it's where they're most comfortable. And seeing as my feet get me from A to B, and occaisonally C, I have to listen to them. Then there is the Philisoph, which I'm sure plenty of you will already be slightly familiar with. It's pretty good craic alright, though there are some annoying people there too...like that fecking culchie Fianna Fáil-er from Kerry who speaks so infuriatingly loudly that there must a Spanish student somewhere in his family tree. I've also joined the English Lit society, which is rather cool. We listen to peoples literary work - their poems, stories etc. Always puts me in the mood to write some poetry or a story...which I'm sure I'll get around to eventually. I've also written for the UCC Express, which I really enjoy, I'm almost like a proper journalist now, it's great.
So, for those of you doing the...y'know...this year, find comfort in the fact that when you make it through the fire, there's a better place awaiting you on the other side. Like Valhalla or something. But seriously, having done it now, and it being nothing more than a mildly unpleasant memory, I can tell you it's not all that bad. Don't stress yourself out so much over it. I'm ESPECIALLY talking to the girls reading this, as they're the ones that really stress themselves out. (I have no idea why, we guys are just far more relaxed about it!) Just relax, take it as it comes, don't work too hard, you'll just be wasting your time if you do. Yes, it's an important test, but life goes on afterwards, and when they're carving your epitaph, it won't say ONLY GOT 350! There's more to life! And you'll see it here!
Well...I hate to piss all over you're parade (because I'm such a nice guy), but college fucking R-O-C-K-S! It's great, there hasn't been a day yet when I haven't wanted to go. Going to classes is a completely different story of course, but I'll get onto that in a moment. The whole college scene in itself is just so cool - it's like a town within itself. It has everything we could ever need.
Well...ok, maybe "ever" is stretching it a little bit, but you can easily spend the whole day here. For the first three days of this week, I didn't leave the campus before 9.30 and even later. I know this may seem really weird to you lowly secondary school students, where you want to get out of school as quickly as is humanly possible. But it's not like that here, we have two pubs, where we more often than not retire to each evening (usually the Old Bar). We have about...6 places where you can get something to eat or drink, not including the shops. We get our papers cheaper here than out in the real world too - the Irish Times being only 70c and the English papers around 60c! We have a pool hall and our own library.
We even have a place where we can hang out without being pestered into buying stuff or about lotiering. Show me somewhere in town where you can do that, huh? Where is this freeloader heaven I hear you ask? Why, it's the Devere Hall in the Student Centre. It's where we gather every day to hang out, half-heartedly study, read the papers, practising juggling/poy-ing and so on. We also tend to eat there, though God tells us not to. Every so often his (though sometimes it's a her - which answers many theological questions) voice booms out across the hall, reminding us that "there is no food or drink allowed in the multi-functional hall or pool hall. Please use the bins provided!" But we're good little college students, we don't listen to God at all, we carry on in our merryily agnostic way eating our sandwiches, and drinking our coffee.
Now, to the classes. The subjects I'm taking (English, Irish, Philosophy and Polotics.....yeah, that's right, Polotics - the study of the mint with the hole!) are all pretty interesting...to varying degrees. That doesn't stop me skipping the odd lecture every once and a while. See the thing is with nobody chasing after you to go to classes, or do you're work, it's sink or swim. I'm pretty confident I'm not going to sink, but sometimes it's nice to just float though, take a little break. I'm not stressing myself out too much. Then again, those of you who know me, know I rarely do!
Then there are the other extra curricular activities, like the societies and clubs. Several people have joined the trampolining club, which is apparently "fucking great" but personally, I don't see the attraction in jumping really high into the hair and spinning - my feet happen to like the ground, it's where they're most comfortable. And seeing as my feet get me from A to B, and occaisonally C, I have to listen to them. Then there is the Philisoph, which I'm sure plenty of you will already be slightly familiar with. It's pretty good craic alright, though there are some annoying people there too...like that fecking culchie Fianna Fáil-er from Kerry who speaks so infuriatingly loudly that there must a Spanish student somewhere in his family tree. I've also joined the English Lit society, which is rather cool. We listen to peoples literary work - their poems, stories etc. Always puts me in the mood to write some poetry or a story...which I'm sure I'll get around to eventually. I've also written for the UCC Express, which I really enjoy, I'm almost like a proper journalist now, it's great.
So, for those of you doing the...y'know...this year, find comfort in the fact that when you make it through the fire, there's a better place awaiting you on the other side. Like Valhalla or something. But seriously, having done it now, and it being nothing more than a mildly unpleasant memory, I can tell you it's not all that bad. Don't stress yourself out so much over it. I'm ESPECIALLY talking to the girls reading this, as they're the ones that really stress themselves out. (I have no idea why, we guys are just far more relaxed about it!) Just relax, take it as it comes, don't work too hard, you'll just be wasting your time if you do. Yes, it's an important test, but life goes on afterwards, and when they're carving your epitaph, it won't say ONLY GOT 350! There's more to life! And you'll see it here!
