![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What do you want?
Oct. 7th, 2018 01:32 pmI thought it was supposed to be my students that caught the Fresher's Flu, not me. I've been feeling pretty crap all week though I'm pretty sure it's actually just a cold - fever, aches, chills, coughing, sneezing, throat full of razorblades. Saying Freshers Flu just makes it sound more dramatic
Freshers Flu, is, however, an actual affliction that first year university students get. Similar symptoms to a cold or the flu generally caused by large numbers of students from all over the place, including world wide, all arriving in the same place and bringing all their own germs and immunity needing to be built up. Combine that with the often unhealthy diet and large amounts of alcohol consumed during the first couple of weeks. AND they psychological effects of leaving home, homesickness, stress, making new friends, learning to be independent. Wham, a teenagers immune system buckles under the strain and they fall victim to Freshers Flu.
Frustratingly, it's been a week with a lot of fun things to talk about and no energy after finishing schoolwork to come online. I didn't even go to the cinema with Jack and Lucy to see Venom this weekend.
You see, the start of the new school year is one of my favourite times. It's a time filled with excitement and promise and new beginnings and new ideas. Rooms and halls filled with new friendships, new relationships, and, with Donna Strickland winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, so many young women filled with a sense of what could be which makes me excited to have them in my classroom. The conversations that buzz around are about why they're studying astrophysics and what they want from it. I love all the discussions filled with wonder, with purpose, with determination. I love that there are young women who believe they can accomplish something in the world of physics.
When they ask me what I want, I give them a standard answer about helping them become the best possible scientists they can, helping them achieve their potential.
what do I really want?
A horse!
Freshers Flu, is, however, an actual affliction that first year university students get. Similar symptoms to a cold or the flu generally caused by large numbers of students from all over the place, including world wide, all arriving in the same place and bringing all their own germs and immunity needing to be built up. Combine that with the often unhealthy diet and large amounts of alcohol consumed during the first couple of weeks. AND they psychological effects of leaving home, homesickness, stress, making new friends, learning to be independent. Wham, a teenagers immune system buckles under the strain and they fall victim to Freshers Flu.
Frustratingly, it's been a week with a lot of fun things to talk about and no energy after finishing schoolwork to come online. I didn't even go to the cinema with Jack and Lucy to see Venom this weekend.
You see, the start of the new school year is one of my favourite times. It's a time filled with excitement and promise and new beginnings and new ideas. Rooms and halls filled with new friendships, new relationships, and, with Donna Strickland winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, so many young women filled with a sense of what could be which makes me excited to have them in my classroom. The conversations that buzz around are about why they're studying astrophysics and what they want from it. I love all the discussions filled with wonder, with purpose, with determination. I love that there are young women who believe they can accomplish something in the world of physics.
When they ask me what I want, I give them a standard answer about helping them become the best possible scientists they can, helping them achieve their potential.
what do I really want?
A horse!
