The End or the Beginning?

You know that feeling before you find out a piece of information which could change your life?

The one before you find out your final assignment grades, whether you got the job or not, or if you’ve done enough to secure a place in the Britain’s Got Talent semi-final?

Well, I’ve had that in plentiful supply over the last couple of weeks.  I’ve had job applications and interviews, assignment marks back for pretty much the whole of the second semester, and after performing live on sta- …ok, the last one wasn’t true.

Anyway, the news has been a mixture of good and bad.  I didn’t get the job I was after, but I did get fairly decent marks in my final assignments.  Add to that the Edge Hill Class of 2010 Graduation Ball and it’s fair to say that May was a pretty good month. 

Now it’s June, and it can be easy to simply write the academic year off as ‘finished’, and look forward to doing absolutely bugger all over the summer holidays.  The final series of Big Brother, for example, would be a good way to spend limitless time on doing absolutely nothing but staring at the box.  After all, you’ve worked hard this year, and you deserve to put your feet up and simmer in the garden.

I’ll admit, it’s exactly what I’ve done for the last say, 21 years of my life. 

But I won’t be doing it this year.

I’ve learnt (rather late on) that working when everyone else isn’t could give you a big advantage when it comes to things like dissertation research, project planning, job applications and the like. Do something productive if you’ve got the summer before you’re due to start uni free – volunteer, do some work experience, research something you’re interested in – anything.  Use your time wisely.

Stuff like this can only give you better skills, more content knowledge, more experience, more quality than everyone else.

Don’t forget the old adage; ‘If you fail to prepare, you are prepared to fail’.

And on that, rather preaching note, I’ll leave you with a photo of the graduation ball. Stolen from the website.

Matt