My Second-Year University Experience

Seeing as deadlines are through and I've now received all of my results for my second year of uni, I thought I'd do a post dedicated to my second-year experience.

As a lot of you already know, my first year of uni left me feeling rather negative and at times I didn't even want to carry on, BUT, I'm definitely glad I did. I'm finishing second year with two 1sts and a 2:1 in my most recent hand-in and I'm really excited about third year.

It honestly makes me so happy to look back on this year knowing how much happier I am. This time last year I really didn't know whether I wanted to carry on with university or not. It was never the course that was the issue, as previously explained, it was a mixture of environment, homesickness and not feeling like myself. This year I've been living in a really nice environment (I'm sure many can agree that halls aren't the best), I've prioritised making time for things I enjoy, and I've learnt how to better deal with homesickness. It just goes to show how important things like your environment can be and I really hope that if anyone is feeling like I was last year, just know that with a few changes you can massively shift your outlook and experience.

I'll insert some pictures at the end of this post as a little summary of the things I've been up to this past year. Falmouth is such a beautiful place to live and I'm so lucky to have such incredible scenery on my doorstep. I've done things like walk from Falmouth beach to Trebah Gardens and back (a 12-mile coastal walk for context), I've interviewed drunk teenagers on the street at 1am, I've had multiple beach BBQs and spent evenings going on long walks with my flatmates (will never get over the scenery of Falmouth). I am however yet to venture into the sea - it's cold alright...

Now this post is about my second year, so I thought I'd go over a few of the things I've done this academic year and then I'll go on to talk about my plans for next year.

I started this year with 3 modules: Film Genre, Documentary and British Cinema. I wrote two essays and edited a Documentary called Social Creatures (all about intergenerational perspectives of social media). For Film Genre, I wrote an essay about 'Masculinity in the Western' and for British Cinema I focused on homosexuality and how it's portrayed through themes of social realism. I really enjoyed all of the modules in first term, what I like about my course is that you tend to do one practical module and two essay-based modules (turns out I really enjoy writing essays, who'd have known). During this time, I completed an introductory BSL (British Sign Language) course which was really eye opening and actually influenced my dissertation idea for next year (but more on that later).

Second term of this year, which is the one just past, I took the modules: Film and Philosophy, Editing and Post Production and Gender and Sexuality. My practical module for this term was the Editing module, I was team leader of a crew where we re-created a scene from Limitless and composed a showreel that explained how we did it. For Film and Philosophy, I wrote an essay on fate, focusing on the film Sliding Doors. And for Gender and Sexuality, I wrote about heteronormativity and how on-screen homosexual couples adhere to gender performances which represent underlying representations of heterosexuality (wow that was a mouthful, sorry). Again, really enjoyed these modules, second term was my favourite term yet, really really enjoyed everything I researched and editing is always fun for me. Speaking of which, this term I completed an Avid Media Composer course which comprised of two weeks learning the software and two exams. I'm now a certified Avid user which feels pretty cool to say considering Avid is the industry software for editing.

Now moving onto my plans for next year, instead of a year consisting of 6 modules, it consists of a dissertation and a film craft portfolio. I've chosen to specialise in Editing (surprise surprise), so I'll be the editor of a film following a boxer - which means a training montage, something I've always wanted to edit. As for my dissertation, like I mentioned earlier, my BSL course opened me up to appreciate the deaf community, so my dissertation will be focused on deaf cinema audience experience, where I'm hoping to do some research with a deaf centre, and I'll also be conducting an experiment to do with sound and emotional connection. I'm really looking forward to third year, I'm really excited about the work I've got planned out and I'll be living in the same house which is a really nice bonus.

As for now, I'm currently in my summer holidays, staying in Falmouth till late June, got a few exciting plans for the summer, a trip to Skopelos (Greece) with my parents and in July I'm off to Edinburgh with my bestie, Lucy. Considering I have the house in Falmouth throughout summer, I'm spending as much time here as I can. Just spending the time appreciating Falmouth in the nice weather (although it's currently cloudy) and I'll probably be back again with friends in August.

Hope you've enjoyed this little insight into my second year, as I said before, I'm so happy to be writing this a year on knowing how I feel now. I also know how fast the year has gone and it really won't be long until this time next year where I'll be graduating (ahhh). Thanks for reading this is if you got this far and I hope you all have the best summer!

I'll leave you with some pictures that sum up my second year and I'll be back next week with another interview series post.

All my love,

Emily x