My To-Do List

• Take your time with your coursework and actually get it done long before it's due in. Not the night before, you're only going to make yourself sick.
• Finish and send off your MA applications. Don't leave them until the last minute like an idiot.
• Get your ears pierced again- you've been thinking about it long enough.
• Take more risks and make more mistakes. Make more of a fool of yourself (if that's even possible) and don't let yourself get scared out of anything.
• Fall in love. Deeply. Never regret it.
• Lose weight.
• Keep it off.
• Love your body. It's not perfect, but it's yours.
• Learn to play the acoustic guitar.
• Never miss a chance to let your family and friends know that you love them.
• Stop talking about all the novels you'd like to write and WRITE THEM. You could do it if you'd just put your mind to it.
• Start singing and acting again. You know you miss it.
• Read all those bloody books that have been gathering dust on your shelves for years. I know you have a lot of work, but you can afford a break once in a while to read something you enjoy.
• Find a part-time job somewhere. Anywhere. It's not fair on your Mum and Dad that you never have any spare money of your own to fall back on.
• Find another one in Lancaster when you return for your MA. You can get out and meet new people.
• Travel. Go to Northern Ireland and America and Mexico and Portugal and anywhere else that catches your eye.
• Say yes more.
• And say no when you need to.
• If you're still thinking about Thailand this time next year then go and do it. It will be amazing.
• Listen to advice.
• Ignore it when necessary. (Note: as you are still very young and stupid this will be most of the time)
• Always ask questions.
• Take more photos- you want memories to show your children.
• Smile. Life is good.

Choices, choices, choices

So this year my university have decided to offer its students an alternative choice to exams. Rather than taking an exam, we can approach the department with the idea for a mini dissertation and write 6,000 words of coursework on the module rather than an exam.
    Honestly, I'm sort of struggling to decide what to do. When I first heard it I thought 'psht, don't be ridiculous; you're good at exams' which, not trying to blow my own horn or anything, I am. I find it easy to work under that kind of pressure because I love the idea of just writing for three hours and then having everything over and done with. Coursework hangs over your head for weeks. On top of that, there's a very high chance the mini dissertation will be due in around the same time as my actual dissertation, so I'll have enough work to do next term anyway.
    I only have one exam this year anyway because all of my other modules are coursework based, so really I shouldn't be considering this new option at all. However, we've been doing some of the History plays in my Shakespeare module these past three weeks and I'm really enjoying them; particularly the way in which the politics and power shifts in them. There should be a question on that subject in the exam anyway, but if there isn't I'll kick myself if I know there's a chance I could have done a mini dissertation on just that and gotten a good mark for it.
    I dunno. Life's full of too many choices right now and I'm thinking ahead when I actually have two assignments to finish today/tomorrow. So, on that note, I'd better get back to Lacan and his psychoanalytical theories. Fun times.
    Toodles! J.