Elected!

It’s two weeks until I finish second year at Bristol.  The summer holidays are ten thousand words worth of essays and a presentation away, but on the other side awaits a life where I don’t dream about the MHRA referencing system or count days by word limits, rather than hours.   And it’s sunny.

Assessment period can be tough for students.  The nature of my English-heavy degree means the bulk of work comes right at the last minute, which runs the risk of complacency until the final fortnight panic.  The best students are the ones who start early and begin to explore essay topics well in advance of a looming May deadline, but even these magical beings will also need some of the support that Bristol offers to remind you that you are not your word limit.  The SU’s Just Ask service, for example, offers free and confidential advice about getting extensions, coping with workload and navigating the welfare systems within the University.  Student Officers are currently organising a ‘Mind Your Head’ month, part of a campaign to raise awareness about mental health and encourage us to access resources that’ll make us feel more stable and open about being low or worried.   And on a more organic level, you can barely walk down Woodland Road without seeing one study group or another heading off to a local café to get their heads down and, of course, have a bit of a chat.

Outside of academic life, the timetabling of my degree has enabled me to take part in a huge amount of extra-curricular.  My involvement in student politics actually led me to take the terrifying decision to run in the SU Officer Elections in March.  I ran for Undergraduate Education Officer after enjoying my year so much as the part-time Arts Faculty Rep.  After the most exhausting week of my life, where from 9am – 9pm I talked to students up and down the city, I won the election. I’ll now be taking a year out of my degree to work full time as the UG Education Officer, before returning as a Bristol student to head off on my year abroad.  Getting involved in the Students’ Union was the best decision I made at University.  If I told myself in Fresher’s Week that I would be a delegate at the National NUS Conference, a representative for all UG Arts students and then, by March 2016, the UG Education Officer-elect, I probably would have laughed.  Turns out you can get a lot done in two years at a University that supports and inspires you.

Anyway, back to the Harlem Renaissance.  Dreams about my year out won’t write these essays for me.

– Zoe