All shall be well

Hiya, I'm Ro and I'm a mature student going into my first year of a Theology BA

Figured I'd set up a side blog to academia post instead of clogging up my main

A bit about me:

I live in the UK

I'm a life long theology enthusiast but only started to consider studying it this year

I have 2 cats who are basically my children (my youngest is trying to eat my phone whilst I type this)

I'm a hobby essay writer, so I'm hoping that helps with uni papers

I'm big into herbalism (hence the name) and folk magic tradition

I'm a Christian in the "thought too much about it and now im a socialist" way

On that note I'm very far left politically and political theology is a particular passion of mine, along side eco theology

Saint Julian of Norwiches #1 fan

All my other feedback was very very positive and I "demonstrate real promise". They were particularly impressed with my usage of journals instead of books within my (practice) bibliography, calling it exemplary!!

The issue with my apostrophes is something I'm well aware of, I struggled to know where to put them all throughout school and I've no idea why... maybe I need an apostrophe cheat sheet for future writing

On Tuesday I met my politics lecturer for the first time, he set the second half of our first assignment thats due this coming Wednesday. He also talked us through the first part of it, and I got to flex my preparedness because I had a book in my bag that I'd checked out earlier in the day to use for the assignment, so he took that to use as an example.

On Thursday I wasn't well and had to leave an hour early, but I took so many notes that I'm basically finished with my first book, they'll get copied up into digital notes and onto flash cards when I have a spare moment, for now it's more a processing dump though...

Friday we had politics and I joined in with the lecture more than I'd expected to, one of my special interests is politics and so I had a great deal to say... he used my contributions as start points for some of the lecture and took me aside afterwards to thank me for my "insight" and to tell me how refreshing it is hearing a first year contribute like I had... so I'm still buzzing from that

I submitted my first assignment today, after drinking 6 cups of (decaff) tea and crying a little... I promise I'll be less chaotic with posting soon, I'm still adjusting to my new life!!

5 hours of lectures on 5 hours of sleep was a bit hardcore, but in a good way!

I got lots of notes taken, although I'm very out of practice with my note taking and I definitely need to work on being more efficient. I also managed to contribute in a meaningful way to the group discussions and I'm particularly proud of myself for that as it's not something I've ever been able to do before! I've gotten better at public speaking since I left education and the confidence boost of engaging in active discussion is very nice

I went for a walk with a classmate at lunch time and we found a little sharing library that I shall contribute some books to in the coming week

I've got home, worked through some coursework online, transferred today's notes into my note card binder so they're easier to flip through, and bought myself a copy of a book my lecturer reccomended to me, now time for bed!

We were in Tuesday for 2 hours but it was mostly an introduction to the structure of the course, but tomorrow our serious lectures start!

As a mature student there's a level of anxiety that comes with reentering education, I've been away from formal learning for so long that I'm very scared that I won't take it all in, or I'll struggle with essays and keeping up with work etc. I know I'm more than capable but even so I am incredibly anxious about the whole thing

I also have a sermon I need to finish writing for Sunday, so I might take my laptop and use the library to sit in the quiet and get that done, I'm really slacking on that front... oops!