New Beginnings

 Hello there! I can't believe that we're now into September which means that my birthday is next month and (dare I say it) Christmas is but three months away. Having been in the educational system since I was 4 and in Nursery, September always feels like more of a new year than the transition from January to December does. For the first time, this September I will not be starting onto a new year of education, but rather I will be starting a new job and venturing out into the world of the 9-5.


I don't really know how I feel about starting my new job. Am I scared? Am I excited? I can't really decide. Probably a mixture of them both and then some more. I've had a lot of part-time jobs so the actual idea of a job doesn't really scare me, but over the past two months I've become accustomed to spending the day with Tilly and Tom, going for days out or just chilling out at home, and I'm not looking forward to that being restricted to my weekend and evenings. I am however looking forward to getting out there into the (scary) unknown and finding out what working life is all about. I like to imagine that I'll be one of those people who still manage to fit in a day's amount of tasks around working, but I know that in reality I'll come home and just want to sleep. I think it will also be strange to not have the cyclicality that the academic year had, but rather be at liberty to do something different if I so choose at whatever time of year I like.
 I will miss the comfort of University life as it's what's become the norm for the past three years, but although that seems completely normal now, three years ago that was the unknown and scary future that I had to look forward to, and at least this time I'm settled in my home, and the only thing that is changing is where I go every day rather than which city I'm living in, who I'm friends with and everything that moving away to University brings with it. I look forward to meeting up with friends because I want to, rather than the fact that I'm seeing them in lectures or seminars. I also look forward to the fact that when we do meet up, we're all doing such different things that we'll have lots of interesting things to talk about (not that we didn't before, but you know what I mean!). Although a lot of my friends are going on to do a masters course, they're all doing different subjects and that means that I can ask for reading recommendations that I will enjoy, without having to go through the process of reading the ones I will not enjoy! A few of my friends are, like me, out in the world of work so I know that I'm not alone in this change, and I'm sure that soon we'll be going out for coffee and complaining about something or another that happened at work!
 Just because this September isn't going to bring a new academic year, doesn't mean that it's not bringing a whole new set of beginnings with it. I am interested to see what changes this September brings, and how my life will develop with these changes. What seems unknown at the present time will soon become the norm, and I take comfort in that fact.

Do you find that you feel the new year starts more in September than in January? To everyone with new beginnings this September, good luck to you!

Love Jess xxx