Happy Easter William Shakespeare 3/22/2008 1:25:41 PM
It's Easter Saturday and I'm feeling very peaceful, but planning a shake up I have had a really amazing week. Things have changed so much. One of my girls has had a birthday, I've had an interview at a university that did not come out at all as I expected and my son's wedding plans have started to come together. Then there was that lovely party with all the amazing dancers; but I've already written about those, so I shall move on.
For those who don't know me, I need to tell you that I am no Easter chicken. I've been scratching around this old earth for half a century, so going to university is a bit of a departure that has taken me by surprise. It's not as if it was ever planned in any meaningful way. I went with my daughter to the open day, simply to play the part of parent, but when it came to looking at individual courses, the English BA caught my attention and so I went in to that, while she looked at the Law department. Don't worry, I wasn't being a delinquent mama - she's grown up and was planning a change of career that needed new qualifications.
Back to the English department. First we met the faculty director, who objected strongly to his title. He said it made him sound like a businessman, when he considers himself an academic. Listening to him, I have to agree. He had one of those lovely intelligent voices that can only form within the confines of academia. His co-presenter, a lady continued the address in a faintly Germanic accent. She mentioned that there was a possibility of an adaptation of a William Shakespeares play as part of the course. My imagination went into overdrive at once as my brain began to multi task. Frontal lobes concentrating on the presentation, back room grey matter working out ideas for reconstructing a C16th classic play.
Then it was tea and biscuits before being whisked away by the aforementioned academic along with some very young prospective students. That's when I got inspired all over again as he described how the course would include a close inspection of the development of language, taking into account the dramatic effect of mobile phone texting, and associated messaging online, both of which have created a new kind of shorthand with "l8r" for later, "rofl" and quite a few that I'm too much of a lady to include here. Afterwards I had a long chat with him and he encouraged me to apply, saying I should try several universities. Apparently that's the normal way of doing things.
I went away and had a good long think. Then I thought some more and realised that this was something I really, really wanted to do. I filled in numerous forms, applied to three local universities and then tried to forget all about it. A few weeks later, I checked online for results. One of the establishments had rejected me out of hand. The other two were still thinking about me. Another couple of weeks and an email arrived, inviting me to arrange an interview with the admissions tutor - the lady co-presenter at the open day. That interview took place on Tuesday and was a real eye opener.
Since the university is in the middle of a city, my girls came along to give me moral support and to join me in a post interview shopping trip. We reasoned that if all went well, I'd want to celebrate and if it went badly, bright lights and pretty baubles would lighten my mood. I left them in the student coffee bar and went up to meet my fate.
We talked about the course, my plans and hopes, and about that Shakespeare play. What I said seemed to set them back on their heels and I saw jaws visibly drop.
