Student Blog: The Revelation of Third Year

As of last week, after our music literacy assessment on a bright Monday, we have come to the end of second year. With no work left to do in the past few days, it has been a strange feeling. I thought I would feel some sort of relief without the workload but with empty hands, I feel as though I should be doing something. I remember being warned about how rocky second year would be, that it was the hardest year in all the three we would experience. Now that it’s passed, a part of me wishes I’d go through the hassle of it all over again. The calm after the biggest storm in your university life can really shake you, and you cannot really help but continuously brace yourself for another storm when there really isn’t another to be wary of.

The purpose of this blog, as I begin my summer break, is to appreciate the last two years I have had and have a moment to share with you a slightly overwhelming transition into my final year of studying abroad.

The event that really solidified the end of second year was Leaver’s Ball, when we celebrated our third years and bade them farewell; it was then our lecturers began to refer to us as the ‘current third years.’ I never knew how fast three years could go by. I always thought we had plenty of time left while I was learning ‘If Momma Was Married’ for our scene studies assessment in first year, with more time to do things and savor them, but the revelation of third year being three months away has just hit me as I write this. I’ve made a home out of being in the University of Winchester, with only my friends and lecturers for family in the UK, and being on a time constraint for the next few projects we have with them, I fear I might get too emotional as we finish them.

To my surprise, we only have three modules in third year compared to the bulk we get in our first and second year. From what I have selected, one of the modules we have focuses on building our portfolio which involves professional self-tapes of a vast range. From voice acting to singing to dancing, we’ll have the chance to build of reels to prepare our Spotlight pages to apply to agencies. The other is one called ‘Theatre Company’ in which we have to look on the business aspect of theatre, in the sense we will be the ones handling a faux logistic to present to our lecturers in a 15-minute presentation by the end of the module. It is unlike anything we have ever handled before in terms of presentations as we had always done them on cultural context, but it is interesting for a change. And our very last module, as you would guess for a musical theatre course, is our final year musical showcase which will be our only focus throughout the entirety of our second semester. We won’t be learning our musical any time soon but we have heard the choices that our director/acting teacher is considering. There is no guessing between the potential choices and the fact that we have been told that we might be doing a family-friendly show. I don’t suppose Carrie is very family friendly.

It's a little early to grief my past university days when I have a year more, but I know it will pass me by faster than I think. I have never made plans this early into the holidays for what I’m going to do in the next semester. I have always been the sort to take things as they come, so while keeping up with that attitude, I’m learning to plan things ahead to sort out my schedule to prevent another round of springtime burnout and just enjoy myself with as much as I can do.

As an international student, there is much more to take into consideration as well. My parents and I have decided that I will be staying in the UK and now the task is to settle the Visa things, find a place and set off into I don’t know what. Again, I’ve got plenty of time but I liked uni for its set schedule so the autonomy of having nothing at all once I’ve graduated is rather terrifying. I’m incredibly lucky to have friends who want to work this out together which makes the confrontation a lot less intimidating but we’re all equally confused. We’ll get to knowing eventually. Not too soon but eventually.

There is not much else to say as we close this chapter of my university year but I’m happy to have had a lot to share on here. And the next year, there will be a lot more to tell as I balance student rep work along with my theatre endeavors. We’ll be dealing with events throughout the year to spice things up for the next second and first years, and making the most of what we have left for us.

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