Reflecting on my time as a mature student at YSJ
Hello everyone – we hope you are enjoying your summer break and the sunshine which it has (finally!) brought.
The summer holiday can be a fantastic time – full of good weather, relaxing in your garden or in the local park, finally having the time to watch the TV programme you’ve been missing or to catch up with a hobby – but we know that, for some students, summer can also be frustrating.
You could have spent the full academic year making new friends, learning new things, and running from seminar to work to your assessments – and now find that you have what seems like endless time to yourself, and no idea how to spend it. If friends have gone home for the summer, you may be feeling a little lonely and lost – and you may have realised that, without an instalment of your student loan over the summer period, your bank balance is getting a little low.
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be sharing a series of blogs to help you make the most of your summer vacation, from things to do to money saving tips to how to find a summer job. This week we’re bringing you a piece by Stui Smith, our previous Mature Students’ Officer, reflecting on the summers he has spent in York during his studies and suggestions for making the most of the long summer holiday.
If you have any questions about the blogs, please feel free to contact Emma Coward-Gibbs, Specialist Support Adviser, at e.coward-gibbs@yorksj.ac.uk.
Summer is a journey on the raft of choice – Stui Smith, 3rd Year Creative Writing
On an LNER Azuma, the sunset slips by the window with pleasant temperatures all day. The perfect time for reflection; as summer begins and the future beckons. This summer marks the end of my undergrad. I could be going back into the world and leaving academia; but I, like so many other students, have never really been free to roam in books and ideas. I have always worked. 24 years of work, so my experience is different and also enlightening. I struggled with summer. I feel like a kite on the breeze; tethered to a point but nearly adrift with the indistinct balance between freedom and obligations, necessity and enjoyment.
In first year, after second semester assignments were handed in, I felt the relief of the summer break. I waited for the results and found myself wandering, wondering and itching from sitting on the dry spiky lawns of Dean’s Park. Immersed in casual reading, drawing, painting… with ice-cream, drinks, and snacks, soon I recognised a familiar dread rising as I opened my banking app with increasing trepidation. One month and my financial cushion was a little less comfortable. I explored the shop windows and took photographs of vacancies. I was lucky enough to talk my way into a job by sitting at the same table as the manager of a bar: my future boss.
I waited another month to start. Being a waiter was a new challenge, I thought I would be a glass collector for months. It was long hours, finishing late, and when my first year accommodation ended, I commuted down for Saturday shifts. I stayed at the library overnight to read ahead – do NOT recommend! My Summer job was humorous, serving bottomless brunches to 11 tables, hearing strangers chanting my name along the street, and being invited out for drinks after work. Summer can be the start of something unexpected, surprising, and also necessary. Second year was more expensive. The extra income was welcome. Second summer began but by August the bar had closed. I was transferred to a pub as a restaurant waiter and bar staff. I wrote a draft of my dissertation over the summer of second year. This was fortunate, as it was substantially altered, and by being ahead I felt in control.
Living companionably with uncertainty is a skill. I have been amazed by the resourceful attitude employed by students in negotiating adversity through the cost-of-living crisis. These difficulties are part of the extra-curricular learning experiences that become anecdotes and jokes in time, but feel too real in the moment to be very humorous. Should anyone question the value of studying, you might gently remind them that balancing employment with educational commitment is a life skill. I always tell folk: “even if I study for no other reason than committing 3 years to work that I really care about, how many people can say the same?”. This is generally logical and charmingly disarming.
Look to summer as a time for potential transformation. Recounting the year to yourself, to friends or family shows your progress. Taking time to be proud of your achievements reinforces the purpose of your studies and frames your next steps. Time away from timetable allows space to pursue external interests or forge ahead with projects you might have put on hold. I have a watercolour that I have been working on since 2016 that gets attention every summer. As a creative writer, I could spend this summer seeking out writing prizes or taking steps towards being published… you might think about your aims.
Noting down ideas one summer might form plans for the following year. Perhaps working this summer will create funds for travel plans next year, contribute towards graduation costs (feasibly my concern just now) or enable less work through the next academic year and achieve the greatest success.
Summer is a journey on the raft of choice. Buoyancy comes from anticipating, and reacting to change. In this way summer is most like living a good life in general and making choices early enables greater freedom later, and such freedom is the ability to see a happier world and play your chosen part.
Best wishes for an enjoyable summer.