On Thursday I pre-enrolled for next year, and so have signed up for the modules I plan on doing in my third and final year of university. How scary is that? It’s traditional to say “I can’t believe how quickly time is going!” but I haven’t felt that. It seems ages since the beginning of the year, let alone that time back in the dim and distant past of last September when I arrived back for my second year. I’m really enjoying university, so I’m not at all inclined to wish it away.
Anyway, it may or may not interest you to know what I’ll be up to next year. If not – well, this is my blog, and you don’t have to read it, so I’ll continue blithering on anyway! I’ve probably now scared any readers away from this blog now, except for my mum. Hi Mum!
One third of my final year will be Creative Writing. One third! This is why I chose Cardiff, honestly. I’m doing a full-time degree, and so that means next year I ought to be spending almost two working days of my time per week – ought to be doing what I love doing and want to do with my life. How wonderful!
But writing takes real work, believe me: the words don’t flow off onto the page in some surge of inspiration. It takes effort and thought and sheer nail-your-bum-to-your-seat-and-don’t-let-yourself-get-distracted hard graft, as I found when finishing off my Creative Writing portfolio. But it’s also a joy and a pleasure and a satisfaction in it, and if I can get to a stage when the service of my life to God can be through writing and I can earn my living through that, then I’ll be a happy man.
I’m planning on doing my Dissertation in English Literature, which will be one-sixth of the year. Together, my Creative Writing modules and my Dissertation make up the English half of my final year. I’m hoping to do my Dissertation on Christianity and Literary theory. The message of the Gospel is the message of the Kingdom of God, which starts in our hearts but should work out into every area of life. I want to work out what the lordship of Christ means in the area of literary theory, so much of which is thoroughly secularised and atheistic. I found a book on the subject, Towards a Christian Literary Theory, which I’ve just begun reading, and it’s encouraging to find more existing material on the subject – I won’t be starting from scratch, which is reassuring!
This year in History I studied “Medieval Heresy & Dissent” and “Wales, Ireland and the Viking world”. Next year I’ll be going to be studying modules very different from medieval history – firstly, the history of the Chinese Communist Revolution, and secondly, Chinese language for historians! My housemate Ben says I must be mad; I admit it was a rather impulsive decision, but I hope I’ll enjoy it. In particular, I hope to be able to put the Chinese that I learn to good use, at the very least to talk with international students from China who come to Cardiff.
So that’s the shape of next year. I have, of course, got to finish the second year first. My English essays are almost done – hooray! They’re due in on Tuesday, and I’m taking a break from them so I can go back over them with fresh eyes on Monday for the final spit and polish on them.
But the end of my essays does not mean the end of my work. To liven up my revision, I’ve decided to try and summarise my history courses for you here on my blog. I’ve certainly found my studies interesting (for the most part) so hopefully these summaries will be interesting to you, too, as well as a helpful exercise in preparing for my exams. Stay tuned for the first one on “What was medieval heresy?” very soon.