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End of Second Year

Hello!

I am writing this entry up in the strange hazy space that sits at the end of every academic year. Suddenly, all the pressure of deadline season has fallen away and your days are without as regimented a timetable. This is usually when I ask myself, what now? How do I fill this expanse of time? How do I spend it meaningful? The usual response is to take a nap and read a book and focus on the rest another day.

Today was ever so slightly different. Once the summer is over I will be entering the final year of my undergraduate degree in archaeology. And so, with my final coursework due in at 12pm, I also had a workshop on preparation for my dissertation at 12pm. Out with the old and in with the new, I guess. This has given me a major focus for my summer as I am hoping to get a large chunk of reading done. I am also very excited about going on fieldwork again this year- this time I am going up to the remote west coast of Scotland and I cannot wait to be back in one of my favourite regions of the country.  It has been a couple of years since I have last been up there, and I am so happy that I will be able to go back this summer (even with the midges!). I also have a few personal goals I am hoping to achieve this summer, like passing my theory driving test and drafting a book. All in all, it looks like I am going to have a rather busy summer!

But that is all to look forward to in the future. What about the academic year that is coming to a close? My second year at university has been markedly different to my first, most notably in the fact that I have actually been studying in Manchester rather than at the kitchen table back home! Actually having face to face contact with my fellow students and the staff here at the university has been such an important part of this year for me. I have had so many impromptu conversations with people about different topics that have both been absolutely fascinating but have also helped me think more about topics I have later developed into different assessment ideas. Being face to face has also been great socially, I have made some absolutely amazing friends here that I know I will be friends with for many years to come. 

I have also loved the modules I have been lucky enough to take this year. These have been very different- I have looked at everything from Eve in folklore to constructing spreadsheets and from the unions for fieldwork archaeologists to poetry on bog bodies. This is one of the best things about archaeology, it is such a broad discipline that practically everything is encompassed by it in some way and there are so many different avenues to explore your interests. It is also full of wonderfully eccentric individuals who will happily talk to you about nettles or the social construction of gender. 

If anyone reading this is considering a degree in archaeology, or even just getting involved with a project over the summer- go for it! It is a wonderful, mad, supporting and fascinating discipline that will keep you asking questions about everything you see long after you walk away from the site or campus. 

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