It’s strange to acknowledge that one eighth of my time as an undergraduate university student has come to a close. Perspective is a humbling tool. But, it is also enlightening. UCC (or University College Cork, if you are somehow reading this from a rural village or the middle ages and aren’t familiar with the acronym) has been an experience. Trying to put an apt adjective before that word gave me a headache, so I’ll simply let the italics speak for me instead.
I mean, where do I even start? The campus, the modules, the people, I could fill pages and bore you with every minute detail (an impressive feat, considering just how fantastical this place can be). Instead, I’ll reign it down to a more modest introspection: my personal experience with life as a first year UCC student in Digital Humanities and Information Technology.
Let’s start with the location itself. Walking through campus is just… fun. I feel like this place is its own little country sometimes. It is quaint. Watching everyone walk, pace, gossip, laugh, it makes it all feel just a tad bit more intimate. We’re all just a bunch of dumb kids pretending to know what we’re doing, while the actual competent adults are too busy to pay us any attention. Mind you, it was intimidating towards the beginning. I was not yet built to be perceived by an entire city’s population in my first week. You get used to it, though. You might even indulge in the experience if you are a minor narcissist like myself.
I had classes mostly in Western Gateway Building, Boole Lecture Halls, and the Food Science Building. Walking to and from classes with friends was a great time and I had fun in my classes whenever I had a chance to talk away. For legal reasons, this never happened, as I have never spoken out of turn inside of a classroom.
How could I ever write about my experience with the buildings and atmosphere of this place without showing my love to the Digital Humanities room? If you’ve read my previous post, you’ll be able to see just what room I’m talking about. It is a wonderful space for getting work done, socialising, napping, and anything else you can think of. Some of my favourite memories in UCC have come from that room. There’s an inside joke in our course saying that I live in the room just because of how often I end up in there.
My course itself, Digital Humanities, has been brilliant. I enjoy the material and I feel so accomplished only a semester into it. I have acquired so many skills of a great variety: coding in Python and HTML, learning about the intricacies of computers and the internet, learning about research theory, understanding fascinating topics related to philosophy, and so much more. The assignments are challenging but engaging. The lecturers are incredible at what they do and are very nice people.
What can I even say about my classmates that couldn’t be summarised by hearing my laughter reverberating throughout campus? I am very proud to be the academic rep for this eclectic group of fascinating people. Everyone is just so kind and brilliant, and I spend hours with them thinking it’s only been a few minutes. It’s hard being the funniest in the friend group just from the sheer competition, but alas, I manage it anyway. But in all seriousness, my new friends are everything you could want in people and I’m a better person with them in my life.
Image Unrelated.
I have made a Spotify playlist to describe semester 1 through music. If you’ve read Music In Our Lives, you would know of my obsession with music as a means of storytelling. I have limited it to a maximum of five songs for both of our sanities. I hope that you enjoy it, and feel inspired to capture your semester in your own unique playlist.
To finish this post off, I now look to the future. Semester two, year two, degree two? It’s very daunting and yet exciting at the same time. I can’t wait to see how I change and grow as my time in DH progresses. My hopes are that I gain as much in terms of life experience and wisdom as I do for academia and intellectual development. I hope that my friends all succeed in their respective endeavours also. I have been asked this question many times this year, and I’m still not too happy giving just one answer, but my mantra for semester two?
Be as you wish to seem.
Socrates
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