A day in the life of a humanities student is often characterised by long lie ins and wild nights out, by those who study the sciences or more vocational degrees with heavy contact time. Before we begin our journey in the study of the humanities, we ourselves like to believe that we will spend our spare time pondering great thoughts about literature and art whilst wondering around art galleries, drinking coffee and contemplating the meaning of not only literature, but also life.
However, the reality could not be further from the truth. Those of us who study the humanities know that the numbers of hours we are in University is not the number of hours that we are actually studying for our course, and although the lack of traditional learning time and the opportunity to decide how our time is spent can be liberating particularly with many of us involved in societies or working part time, it can also be daunting, especially as deadlines begin to loom their wearisome head. However the lack of contact time, does mean that it is rare that two days in the life of a humanities student will look the same and the same is true for me as an English and French student. So, to offer a sneak peek into the life of a humanities student, I will give you a peek into the universally accepted most challenging day of the week. A day in which causes dislike in both arts and science students. A day that ruins the peaceful lull of the weekend: Monday.
My Monday does, unfortunately, start with a 9am lecture. A 9am, I’ll admit, I should probably try and turn up to more. After an hour in this lecture, where I have attempted to not fall asleep, I have a gap of three hours until my next lecture. While returning to my bed in Sandyford is usually sorely tempting at this point, given I have actually manage to make it, I attempt to stay in University to get some reading or French homework done. I usually find that a Diet Coke or some sort of fizzy beverage helps me to stick it out until my one o'clock English literature lecture on Revoloutionary Britain. After finishing my lecture, I Student Mentor for the University and I visit a school to hopefully try and “inspire” minds. On a side note, I would definitely recommend applying to be an ambassador or mentor for the University, the work is really fun and it fits really well around a humanities student timetable.
I return to Newcastle University at around four’o clock once I have finished the session. This tends to be the time to dawdle back home where I will try and pick up food for the week before making dinner. If some sort of social has not been arranged or a pub outing, which have decreased in frequency as the golden year of being a fresher has come decidedly to an end, I tend to snuggle up in bed and try and read some of one of the books I have usually been set for that week. Thrilling.