A Game of Risk

So Clearing has begun.

What a scary time that will be for everyone, though mostly for potential students. It’s super busy at work with the setup and taking early Clearing calls and trying to get everything ready for the big push during A level day and beyond. I’m excited but then most people know that I’m weird; I’m probably one of the view people that actually like the whole form filling thing. I was dropped on my head several times as a teenager, that’s probably it.

Speaking of Risk…

My mother and brother stayed with me last week and decided to break out Risk, that horrible game of strategy and family feuds. I like it, but only because I have a tendency to sweep in and steal Australia and just sit there, steadily working my way outwards. However, the rest of my family are pretty ruthless and they’ve developed wonderful strategic minds over the years we’ve been playing. Plus, it’s an excuse not to play Monopoly wherein we all lose because my older brother cheats, so Risk is an acceptable medium.

Needless to say, I lost. I was pretty bad, actually.

Something I’m not bad at, however, is acquiring dogs. I know, what does this have to do with Clearing and work and Uni? Probably nothing but this update has been a long time coming and I need to get everything I’ve done in the interim out there for you guys, so you know I’m not completely boring. I have dogs! I actually have three. Four now! We acquired a new dog a few weeks ago, a gorgeous puppy called Jena. She’s still learning what to do and what is not okay (which includes chewing through her lead.)

My three other dogs, Carrie, Jude and Poppy now have an extra companion.

And now back to studies. Clearing made me think about my own studies, obviously, because there have been some students interested in English and Creative Writing and it’s fun for me to listen to what they want out of it. I don’t even remember what out of it when I started. I’ve always been a great fan of writing and reading, they’re the two things I love best in the world, so it made sense that they were what I chose to focus on in my studies.

I’m about to enter my third year and, as I’ve already spoken about, that means dissertation. I recently got approval for it and I have a provisional title:

The Representation of Homosexuality in

Young Adult Fiction

Now I just have to get into research; something I completely forgot would be relevant. How lovely. Research has never been my forte but now I’m going to have to utilise it if I want to get a decent grade, let alone a good one.  This is usually what my research notes look like:

So you can see why this might be a problem.

Never mind! Time to focus on Clearing and then I can panic about my dissertation the closer it gets to the deadline.