Feminism or Favouritism?

NOT JUST ACADEMIA, BUT LIFE LESSONS:

Learning beyond the lecture theatre. M i l l i e D rap er P e t e r V i g h

ASSOCIATE LIFESTYLE EDITOR

Acommon misconception of the university experience is that it’s a waste of time and that you learn nothing but how to study. “You’re just delaying the inevitable. You’ll have to join us in the real world at some point”. These comments have always frustrated me as they are so ignorant. University is certainly not for everyone, but it was for me, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Aside from my love for literature, my time at Royal Holloway has taught me some invaluable lessons and has changed me as a person. I’m more confident and independent. I know what I love and hate, and my opinions are stronger than ever. Although there is a lot that I will never know, I’m sure that coming to university was the right decision. With deadlines and graduation already on my mind, I’ve thought about how far I’ve come in three years. I’ve learned a lot, but it always comes back to three lessons. From my naive first-year self to my current self, I am positive they are very different people.

Lesson one: Study/Life balance

I have struggled with time management, but I’m starting to figure it out. Whether you are a first-year or returning student, managing your studies and social life is a task. Although it’s easy to ignore responsibility and party every night (whoops), it is important to remember your course once in a while. I wish I had tried a bit harder in the first year, but that’s why it doesn’t count towards your degree, right? Since my first year, I found that planning your tasks by the hour is helpful; write what you set out to do, and after an hour, see how far you’ve come, and decide if that is enough for the day, then move on. It’s easy to spend hours on one task, but you have to ask yourself if this 10% assignment is worth 6 hours of your time.

Lesson two: Don’t be afraid to be alone

After an incredible first year, I expected to continue having a great time. Oh, how wrong I was. Balancing uni work, failing friendships and my first heartbreak, it felt like the world was falling apart. Valuably, I realised that some relationships are not made to last, which was a difficult concept to grasp. I felt the need to surround myself with people to avoid being alone, and my productivity suffered for it. So, taking some time to pay sole attention to uni work and getting the grades to show for it, I knew I needed to put myself first and work hard. Although I love being around people, taking a step back is beneficial. Giving yourself a few hours to focus on yourself is crucial. I took up journaling, and it was great! Invest in yourself every once in a while; it does pay off.

Lesson three: Be brave

This realisation has hit me quite late, I’ll admit. Be brave! Your university experience is what you make of it. You have to show some courage and put yourself out there. Societies are a great way to meet people, but try speaking to classmates first. It’s a great start, and I’ve met some lovely people. I’ve recently made more of an effort to talk to lecturers and seminar leaders, and I feel much better for it. They are there to help and only want to see you succeed. They want to see your curiosity, your passion. Bombard them with emails and ask them to come along during office hours. You’re paying for their guidance, after all! Some argue that university is nothing but dusty lecture halls and thousands in debt. Obviously, the debt isn’t great, but I wouldn’t change my decisions for the world. University is a time for experimentation. Try being the person you want to be, this is the perfect place for that. Who knows, you might love it.

S P O R T The Leap of Faith: The mess that is sports politics.

SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

Fear, adrenaline, and the deep sea. Nothing exerts a bigger sensory overload of feeling alive. This raw emotion is as unwritten of an experience as one can feel and unknown every time. Like a fresh wound, familiar but always different. This is the feeling that I imagine surfers experience when confronted with the great Nazare. Nazare has been somewhat of a mecca for surfers since its commercial boom after Garrett McNamara’s world record run on its waves. Its unique large waves are accredited to the largest submarine canyon in Europe present just off the shore of Nazare. This acts like an amplifier for the incoming ocean swells forcing record breaking waves to form near the coast. In other words, surfing heaven! But why should I care about Nazare? I hear you ask. Because it embodies everything great and endearing about sports but more importantly, highlights everything wrong with many commercial sports now. Freedom. Looking at sports news in recent weeks has just felt like looking at political news. The lies, mind games and unsportsmanlike behaviour cloud the enjoyment of sports. Qatar with its political controversies surrounding the development for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and F1 with its budget breechings regarding Red Bull’s Championships are only some high-profile political cases which are making headline news. Did you hear that the world record for largest surfed wave was broken in the summer of this year at Nazare? No, probably not. But are you aware of the political problems regarding the 2022 World Cup, most likely yes. That right there is the problem. That is why Nazare and the recent resurgence of surfing culture as a whole is so refreshing. It’s just people in harmony with nature, enjoying the sport like it was designed to be enjoyed. So why a leap of faith? Surfers, especially ones daring enough to surf the Nazare waves, have a relationship with fear. Surfing some of the world's largest waves requires a mentality to override fears. This unknown territory is what makes surfing at Nazare so exciting. You just have to go for it. This mentality has been somewhat lost in other sports, hence the political unrest surrounding them. A surfer confronts their fear by riding a wave that could crush them. Whilst politics in sport is like the wave that will crush you if you aren’t the solo entity ready to confront it. A leap of faith, it is all it takes to make that decision. One that seems to be absent in larger sports today. Forget about politics and just appreciate sport for what it is, a ground for people to showcase talent and push their bodies to the limit. Politics are required to maintain the integrity of the sport, but it shouldn’t play into diminishing one. This is why surfing is so magnetic. The lack of boundaries and possibility of control. You play by nature's rules even if you don’t like it. No politics can dictate the outcome of riding a wave. Which leads back to fear and adrenaline. Raw emotions which surfers conquer but politicians of sports seem to fall on. If there is anything to learn from recent news in sport, it is that sports should be left alone to be sports. It needs a new directional force, leading it to its more primitive roots. Like surfing, a fresh lease of life has been breathed into it by places like Nazare. No rules, only the ones which dictate the sport, nature. A set of rules and ethics which has been absent recently from other sports. Maybe it is time to take that leap of faith and turn a page on the mess that has become sport politics.