The Last Week

In 8 days time my time at Leeds Metropolitan University will be over. My assignments will be gone and I won't have to stress about essays anymore. The last few weeks have been hard work and tense. The last couple of weeks before the dissertation deadline and then the last 2 weeks since then have caused quite a lot of stress and hard graft. But now I'm in my last 8 days of essay writing before finally finishing.

I've only been at the university for a year so it doesn't have that feeling of the end of an era like finishing school did, or even college where I was present for 2 years. I say 'year' but I started in mid- September and will finish in mid- May so its really 8 months. It's actually a month less long than the football season. I started on the day Everton played Newcastle at home on a Monday night, it was probably one of my favourite days at 'uni' because I was looking forward to that all day. It turned out to be a cracker as well, one of the best games we've been to all season- 2-2 with a hell of a lot of drama, especially late drama.

I've had some real learning curves, met some nice people and had to read some real tosh. Seriously, whoever thought up the reading lists wants a slap in the face with an oily rag. Some of the crap I've had to read has been beyond dull and mystifying. 'And When Did You Last See Your Father?', 'Kartography', 'In The Skin of a Lion', 'Reading in the Dark', 'A Raisin in the Sun', 'The Satanic Verses' and 'Cracking India'  have all been among the string of pretty guff stuff I've had to read over the last 8 months.

I haven't disliked it, I've liked certain aspects of the experience but I will be pleased to finish next week. Not pleased to finish at university necessarily, but just be finished with the assignments and the stress and pressure that comes with them. I'm going to just chill. I'm going to spend my evenings going to bed when I feel like it, watching '24' and films until the early hours of the morning. I'm going to play Football Manager religiously, work on my fitness and body by jogging, lifting weights and riding my bike on a regular basis. I'm going to read things I actually want to read; Lee Mack's autobiography, Andy McNabb's 'Dead Centre' and Lee Evans autobiography, all presents I got for Christmas and haven't had chance to read yet. I want to carry on reading Flash Forward as well, a book I didn't get chance to finish reading whilst on holiday in Menorca in October (I loved reading that on the beach). I'm going to get the pool table out in the garage, I'm going to go out and about with recreational purposes rather than to go work. I'm going to enjoy walking the dogs twice a day again, I hardly ever walk them in the mornings these days what with university. I'm going to write a lot of my blogs; more film reviews and more football articles (especially as it's coming around to that time of year where it's time to review the season: best moments, player ratings, goals of the season, favourite away days).

And of course, among all the fun things I'm going to look for a job as I'll be in the big wide adult world as of next Monday, which scares me at the moment. I've looked forward to that prospect up until the last few weeks, the thought excited me. Whereas now it is rather daunting, I find it quite scary now it's on the horizon.