Astonishingly (to me at least!), it’s 10 years since I started this blog, just as I was setting off to start at Cardiff University. A lot has changed in that time: both the freshers’ experience, and my life personally…
1. Wifi
One of the first thing any student does on arriving at university is get registered for the uni wifi network. But 2004 was the last academic year in my halls before it got Internet. I had to go over to the Engineering or Maths building to use one of the university computers. I had a dumb phone, and texted my parents to get them to ring me back on the payphone (remember those, kids?)
2. Facebook
I also had no Facebook or Twitter with which to connect to people (or help me learn their names). When I arrived at Cardiff, it was something of a novelty that I’d been in contact with Cardiff Christian Union prior to arriving via the forum on their website. I was “that guy off the Internet”. Today, it’s normal to have found your flatmates online within days of getting your A-level results, which makes the freshers’ experience very different.
3. Exploration
On my first day in Cardiff, I set out to explore the city armed only with a paper map of the university campus area. Beyond its confines, I had nothing to refer to – no Google Maps, no GPS – except what I could see around me, and if necessary, asking people for directions! There was something very satisfying about setting out to explore the area, getting lost, working out where I was, realising that this road joined up with that road, and so on. Moving to London, I’ve been very glad to be able to use my smartphone to navigate, but I’ve no doubt that it’s made me less curious and more inclined to stick to places and routes I already know.
4. Student fees
Back in 2004, we were still fighting the good fight against “top up fees” (now just called “fees”), where universities could choose how much extra to charge students. I think I paid around £1000 per year in fees once means-tested support was taken into account, whereas fees have risen to £9000 per year now.
The current system of students paying back their student debts basically as a graduate tax after they start earning a certain amount, with the debt written off eventually if it hasn’t been paid, is probably the least bad way for students to pay for their education. But the debts incurred can be eye-watering nonetheless, and I’m glad I stood against their increase. Education is a public good as well as an individual one, and we should do all we can to ensure equal access to education for everyone.
Also, by pushing my way to the front of the crowd, I made it onto BBC Wales News on TV that night! They used the same footage as their stock clip for stories about student fees for several months afterwards…
5. Doctor Who
I was especially excited to be going to Cardiff to study because they were filming Doctor Who there! But back in 2004, only geeks like me cared about it.
A few weeks into my first semester, I stepped out of the lecture hall to find the car park outside filled with vans and extras wandering around in strange costumes, including the Moxx of Balhoon (above) having a crafty cigarette break! I quickly established that it was Doctor Who filming in the nearby Temple of Peace. In my excitement, I rang the student newspaper office at once, only to get the verbal equivalent of a shrug.
After the show came back on the telly, such an event would cause a riot of student observers (to be fair, that had as much to do with the presence of David Tennant as anything). By now its a global phenomenon, and while still undoubtedly geeky, geekiness has become much more socially acceptable than when I was at school (see also The Lord of the Rings films for the popularisation of something I liked before it was cool).
6. My friends
I met many of my best friends while at university – it’s now hard to imagine life before my housemates, my coursemates, my friends from the Debating Society, Gair Rhydd, the Christian Union, from Mackintosh Church, the university Chaplaincy, and so on – many of them I’m still good friends with today (and if you’re reading this and we’ve lost touch, why not get in touch? I’d love to hear from you!)
University days are particularly fertile for friendships, because you have lots of time and independence, and are all looking to build those connections for yourself as a young adult. Once you’re working full-time, it generally takes a lot longer to develop friendships. If you’re at university now, make the most of it!
7. My wife
When I came to university, I was just going through the emotionally messy break-up of a long-distance relationship that never really got off the ground. Despite my best efforts, I remained single throughout university! But in the last term of my final year, I met a very nice young lady called Beverley Watling, and it wasn’t long after I graduated that we started “going out”. The rest, as they say, is history…
8. My facial hair
When I came to university, I was fresh-faced and clean-shaven, as above! Now I have grown a beard – a habit that is at once “manly, godly and profitable”, if Charles Spurgeon is to be believed!
9. My city
I didn’t know it when I arrived in Cardiff, but I would end up living there for the next 8 years or so, a large chunk of which I spent either studying at or working for Cardiff University. If as a fresher I could have looked 10 years into the future and seen that I would be living in London and working as a digital editor for Hodder, I reckon I would have been pretty excited about that.
10. My faith
I’m still a Christian, so that much hasn’t changed! But in 10 years, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve grown a lot in my faith. Coming to university, I had a sincere but intellectually somewhat immature faith as a Christian, and a big part of my journey as a student was making my faith my own intellectually, and working out how to integrate reason and faith.
I also arrived at university with a rather limited and suspicious outlook towards Christians outside my own conservative evangelical background. Although I’ve remained basically evangelical in my faith, I’ve gained a deeper appreciation of different Christian denominations and traditions, such as the charismatic church, Anglicanism, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. I still have strong opinions and disagreements, but I now see them as much more commonly in-house debates with brothers and sisters in Christ, rather than always True Biblical Christianity(TM) versus the Heretics!
More importantly, through good times and hard times, I’ve grown in my understanding of just how amazing God is, how deep his love and mercy run, and how big and wonderful his plan of salvation is for the world.
The more things change…
…the more they stay the same. Hollywood’s love of sequels, for example!
