I’ve found that latelly I’ve come to miss school quite a lot, not for the friends (although I do miss them enormously) but for the work that we used to do. Since I’ve come to University something has been missing from the enjoyment I used to get from completing a piece of work. Now days when I finish a 2,000 word essay there’s no feeling of achievement or enjoyment, the fun has been taken out from what I previously used to love. Strangely enough it’s not because it’s harder, it’s because the work has become so monotonous that I find myself going through the same routine each and every term. There’s no challenge to what I’m doing. It’s the challenge that I used to have in school that I don’t have now.
In school they would set projects, presentations, essays, homework, coursework, exams…any form of assessment you could think of and it challenged us because there was such a variety of subjects that our brains were trying to keep all the information in and manage it effectively. However now I’m studying one subject, there’s no longer a variety. It’s either an essay or a fail, and that’s where the real challenge of University lies for me. I love Philosophy, but the sheer routine of how the subject is taught finally dawned on me in my first year. Before, I had several subjects to curb the creativity that the subject lacks when you’re simply recalling other people’s work, whilst now I have nothing to express it with. Yes there are extra curricular activities I do such as code a few websites and work with Radio but currently none of that is assessed, there’s no one to tell me what standard it’s at so I feel as if it’s not work. I now get why adults were constantly saying that growing up is boring, fact is my degree is extremely boring and I think no matter what subject I take I’d find it boring because there’s nothing to bounce off onto like before.
It’s a shame because there was a time when I didn’t associate Philosophy with work, and as a predicate, monotony.
