It’s been a great day today. First off, it was the beginning of Warm Spring. You could feel it brewing over the weekend with the muggy rain. It’s been an astonishing 72 hours, with a complete transformation of the trees in the churchyard opposite my house – just like that! Like a switch being flicked! This really makes me happy.
After a late start following a late night studying I had a couple of classes in which I did pretty appallingly, due to not putting enough work in recently. It’s ok though, I know what I need to do, and I’ll do it, and everything will turn out great.
I’m about 10,000 words into my 7000 word dissertation. Actually enjoying writing that now! I think about half of what I write will end up as appendixes. Only two chapters to go.
Tonight I popped over to the university drama studio to take some publicity shots for a new play being performed by Theatre Two Point Oh, Surveillance (a CILASS funded project). It’s being produced (directed? What’s the difference?!) by a fellow CILASS Student Ambassador (Tom), and stars Laura whose photo I posted a few days back with that great smile of hers (and again, below, without the smile). What an amazing thing they are doing… talk about team building. After the performance I lurked backstage to edit the photos, a process that took about 45 minutes. It was fascinating, as whilst I clicked away in Lightroom I couldn’t help but listen to the stage intercom, thus overhearing the team meeting. It reminded me of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, following the fortunes of a group of dedicated individuals who come together to do something incredible. There’s drama and tension along the way, but the ultimate result is a great show and a wealth of character-building experience.
Once home tonight I attended my first ever group coaching session, as run by TSI, the coaching company that I mumbled about a few weeks back (It took the form of a small group conference call). It was good. Obviously, I’m not going to (and never will) divulge any personal information about my coursemates, but just to say it’s a very diverse group with some incredible people who have gone through very tough times, but are determined to change their lives for the better. It’s a really positive environment, and the timing is just perfect. The coming weeks will see huge changes for me, with several important decisions needed. Having this resource to call upon will help a lot.
I’ll keep you posted on how it goes for me once we get started properly next week.
I’d like to thank those of you who have contacted me with post-grad ideas. You’ve been tremendously helpful. Every day has seen me feeling increasingly grateful that I was not given the job I wanted. I’m not saying that that job (as CIR on the JET scheme) would not have been a good thing – such a position offers incredible opportunities and I believe I would have been a fool to say no had I been accepted – but thinking about who I really am, and where my heart lies, well, it just doesn’t fit.
It’s scary though – I’m really feeling challenged to think hard about where my passions lie, and being dared to invest in turning them into a tangible opportunity. I’m looking at taking a part-time position, enabling me to pay the rent whilst devoting a significant amount of time in starting my own business, and supporting *Twinkle* in hers.
We’ll see. The domain name is registered at least!
Best get to bed anyway. Long day of writing tomorrow. I need to get this dissertation finished asap as I still have a tonne of stuff to conclude before my student status expires!
xxx
The weather has been awesome recently. These days it affects how I feel a lot.
I hope you figure out what you want to do, but it doesn’t matter if it takes some time. I can’t wait until I get to your position and I’ll have so many exciting options to choose from. Japan first though!
you’re going to have a great time in Japan! A year to savour, with no obligation to work, you can get up to all sorts and have a lot of fun!