Deadlines, presentations and friendships - The final curtain

By Simon Wright (Personal Blog)

YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ A PARTY BROADCAST BY THE HAPPYDUDE88 PARTY!

SO, THAT is it.  It has been a powerful year and the recent events have proven to me that hope should be there for all of us.  What a year it has been, and it is scary to think that just one more remains before graduation.  For the final time for a while, I will reflect on events involving me from the week.

DONE: No need for any more of that constant stress!

     Monday was absolute madness, and I was the focus point, although not directly affecting me.  Although I had a couple of minor evaluations to type up, and one of those pain-staking, irritating Harvard bibliographies, Monday was deadline day as far as the rest of the journalism course was concerned.  Four key projects had to be handed in, and by the cut-off point of 7pm.  It was chaos in our journalism workroom.  Books, bits of paper, USB drives, and headphones – you name it, lying around in all directions.  I had to double-check and triple-check that I still had all of my equipment intact.  It felt like the last hours of the current football transfer window process and those final moments when managers are shaking hands on agreements to loan or buy players at the last minute.  I don’t think I was helping with my ‘24’ hour style timing countdown.  Probably should have just put the Countdown clock on repeat, because that’s how it felt like!  Thankfully, everyone beat the deadline and the relief was palpable in the SU bar afterwards.  The burden off many shoulders had just been lifted.  I was pleased to be there, and although I had done the more sensible thing of getting all my projects in and not doing a last-minute job, I couldn’t help but be there and try to offer my sensible advice and help to the best of my powerful abilities.  It did take it out on me by the end of the day.  I was exhausted, really hungry and wasn’t in the mood for celebration.  I can’t imagine how it would have been like for everyone else.  Thursday was a totally different story.

     It has just gone 10am on Thursday and all the tension of a hard year can be let out.  I exit the presentation room and do let out a ‘Fernando Alonso’ style of ‘COME ON, COME ON!’ as I realise quickly that my second year of journalism at the University of Northampton is over.  The year concluded with a magazine presentation infront of the usually, miserable lecturers – promoting my reasons for producing my 12-page TV Gold magazine.  Typically, the presentation times were changed at the last minute less than 24 hours earlier, but that was hardly surprising.  To be honest, having an organised slot is now more of a shock and I think most of us were just past the point of caring.  Luckily, I only had to whizz through a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation infront of one of the senior lecturers, rather than two and it made things far easier than they might have been.  Time to party!

PARTY: Celebrating the end with Rochelle, Emily and Stef

     In the evening, the journalism crew headed out into the town once again, for another wild and wacky night at the Balestra nightclub in Northampton.  We met up inside the club, having gone to various houses and bars in the build-up to the night.  Tom Campbell came in with a bottle of champagne, courtesy of us being on a special guest list.  There was a real cause of celebration within the crew.  As the bottle was passed around and we all took big gulps from the bubbly, you could feel the party mood everyone was in.  I must admit, it tasted good!  No more exams, no more presentations, no more deadlines, time to dance and enjoy!  It was so nice to see so many people make it, people who I don’t normally socialise with.  I was able to let my hair down (I don’t have much of that by the way), and not have a care in the world for where I would be in state of mind 24 hours later.  There was some wild dancing, to some cracking club tunes.  I think most will remember me for singing ‘Let’s Get Ready to Rumble’ and ‘Karma Chameleon,’ out loud.  I have one of the Lips singing games for the Xbox 360, so I am practicing, but let’s face it, I can’t sing!!  The majority of us belting out ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ by Britney Spears summed up the fantastic atmosphere inside the club.  It was all over, and the journalism crew was going out on a high!  Hopefully, there will be more of this next year. 

     As the year has gone on, I feel we have bonded far closer as a group.  At the end of the day, we are in the same boat.  We are on the same degree, aiming for the same ambitions at the end of the three years.  We see each other on a daily basis, so what’s the point of not getting on.  I know that there have been some disagreements or personality clashes in the past, but for me, there has to be a real domestic to not get on or share some form of communication with anyone, however small that may be.  Even I have had to admit that I’ve made mistakes and not treated everyone totally fairly this year.  One of these people is the ‘Beautiful Birmingham,’ herself; Ellie.

     I first met Ellie on induction day in September 2009 and we have had a friendship built on a solid foundation, and have about as much drama as a month’s episodes of Casualty could contain!  Even then, having made the first public introduction, I never thought she would have made the significant impact she has on my life as a whole.  Throughout the first year, we spent so much time together, in fact, almost inseparable.  This year, things have been more awkward for us, for a variety of reasons.  I won’t go into all the details, because that is totally unfair, but I haven’t thought about her feelings at times, particularly at the start of 2011.  Mistakes were made, by both of us, but more so by me.  In March, I nearly lost her as a friend for good and it did drive me to the brink.  In life, you need to make a success of yourself and you are your own person, but there are people who do build your strengths up and make up the rest of your overall character.  Some friendships you just could say ‘Screw it, what’s the point anymore,’ but I’ve never felt that way about Ellie.  Together, we’ve always tried to sort things out and we’ve come out stronger for the experience.  Around Christmas time, she was the one person I could turn to when I had a relationship issue and she was so caring, sweet and amazing about the whole dilemma I had.  That’s a true friend for you, not one who just would say; ‘It’s your problem, deal with it!’  No friendship can be perfect, I don’t think it is feasibly possible, and everyone makes mistakes.  After all, that’s why they put erasers on pencils!  Nobody’s perfect, or ‘Pobody’s Nerfect’ as they’d say Down Under!  However, Ellie has such a big heart and always looks out for me, no matter how much trouble I might be in.  She has always been there for me, and I’m incredibly lucky to have her as a big part of the jigsaw puzzle that is my life.  After all, I have so much drama in my life; it won’t be long before I appear on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories haha!! 

     I can’t complain about how this year has gone, and the final curtain has come down.  No more journalism until October 3^rd, ironically my birthday. 

Have a great summer everyone, I will ultimately reflect on the year 2010/11 at the University of Northampton as ‘I did it My Way!’

THAT WAS A PARTY BROADCAST BY THE HAPPYDUDE88 PARTY!