Number Strategies

It has come to my attention, two weeks into this second semester, that the jump from sub-honours into honours was pretty massive. Those who have made it thus far realise how sad we were for worrying about our coursework in first and second year, and that proud moment when we got a first in that essay seems such a distant and minute achievement. All has been put into perspective.

Recently, some of my close friends have been spoon-feeding me some sweet, sweet doses of perspective. In the form of statements such as, "Imagine if you were still doing Econ...". Now, that's perspective that really makes the weak February sunshine shine just a wee bit brighter. If I were still doing Econ, well...I wouldn't be here. I'm quite certain of it, I don't think I could have taken one more minute of rat-faced, long-limbed professors with bad accents teaching me calculus.

Following this train of thought, we let ourselves reminisce about those first few months of University (when being ten minutes late to lectures meant sitting on the floor by the podium), when doing two required readings each week seemed a paramount achievement, and we still did not know the implications of the 'short loan' system at the library. Ah, to be young and carefree...

But, surely, we later thought, there must have been challenges...right? We must have overcome a few obstacles. My IR friends, still quite unhappy about the crazy demand for their subject, tell me with them it was about overcoming boredom. Being a quitter myself I wonder what Econ was doing to get rid of the crowds. Suddenly we realise: the University is totally playing number strategies!

The redistribution of numbers in each subject is in fact an interesting, and quite positive, aspect of coming to St Andrews. One will begin with one degree and end up with a completely different one. Those first two to three semesters are a jumble of indecision, learning and discarding, and shifting loyalties from one department to the next. IR students all tell me the same thing; those first few modules were incredibly, incredibly boring. This seems to have persuaded some of the less keen ones to leave the faculty, some of them ending up in the more obscure, and less popular, subject areas. I recognise that Social Anthropology is one of these. While IR was doing everything to kick people out, one jaded student at a time, Social Anthropology was playing all its best cards. By best cards, I mean hot lecturers. And by hot lecturers...well, we all know who I mean, don't we? Truly memorable. In fact, so much so that one of us took a picture of his slide-show, the first slide being a photograph of him at the age of about 25. Yes. I blame the first-year hormones for that one, but looking back, I totally wish I had been as clever as that heroic girl. I bet that's one picture to make winter seem like summer. At least it would save me some money on utility bills.

Interestingly, I find that as time progresses, lecturers seem to get better looking (and, yes, better at teaching too). Even for IR, apparently. We have thus come to the conclusion that the University has its schemes for organising us into our departments, a mixture of letting us drift instinctively towards the calling of the ghosts of academic dreams (past, future and present), and the 'carrot and stick' strategy. Although, as one friend has renamed it, for some subjects the University uses the 'whip and stick' method. We all take our picks.