It's taken me about a week to get around to writing this post but I knew as soon as my last exam result was out that it was going to happen. Why the delay then? Well firstly I thought I should let the dust settle after what had been an arduous period of waiting for everyone. Secondly I didn't want to come across as being someone who brags about their results as soon as they got them through. Yes, you got it, I'm going to spout for 5 or more paragraphs about how happy I am with my results and be under no illusion that I couldn't be prouder of myself just now. Gloating? Probably to an extent but everyone that I study with has had some time to digest their results so why shouldn't I get to talk about mine?
I had to laugh to myself when the first 5 (of 7) of my results were released a week past Saturday. I had just finished a trial shift at Costa coffee (other coffee shops are available and probably just as well) when I found out that my results were online - I wasn't online though. I stepped out of the door of the shopping centre to see my bus pull away from me. However it was either I washed my hands properly or caught the bus, with my decision to go for hygiene costing me a walk (and latterly, a run) home in the rain - damn being clean! Anyway I made it home with dirty water splattered up my shoes and black trousers and sat like a drowned rat whilst my computer booted. The relief was familiar but the results themselves looked a bit different than usual: 4 A's and a B - not a bad start. Alone in the house, I let out a powerful roar of delight leaving every glass object in my street ringing for moments after.
So then the wait was on. For whatever reason it was my first 2 exams that were not online but I'm not here to question the administration of the great institution that I'm a student of - sorry I got carried away there. Long story short, they came out on different days but they carried the same attractive sharp shape that is the letter 'A'. If you're getting bored of this then do let me know but I'm just about to tell you why I couldn't care less.
I look back on those 2 months and I often wonder just how I managed to pull it off. Yes I worked hard during most of that period, from those first notes in Easter right the way through to the end of the last exam, but I also felt myself wasting time as well. The thing is that I've got nothing to test that against and it might well be that I worked just as hard as the next person - I'm often a bit harsh on myself. Then I look back on those 2 months again through the glasses that are tinted with the results that I have achieved from them and see that there is a very good reason for my success - hard work. That old adage that you only get out what you put in (bordering on being cliche) serves as a poetic description of what has been a very fruitful few months for me academically.
Something that happens often when I'm tapping away on a new blog post is that I can almost sense what people are going to think and feel about the stuff that I'm writing. The crazy thing about this post is that I knew before I even started it how people are going to perceive it. From an outsider's perspective this is a egotistical rant that shouts: 'look at me, I'm just that good!'. Thankfully most of my readers know me to be a modest person who very rarely blows his own trumpet and usually only does so when I would rather others stopped going on about how smart they think I am. Everyone knows that Chandler in Friends makes jokes when he feels uncomfortable; I jokingly comment on my brainpower when someone is embarrassing me. This post is not a manifesto of my brilliance. It is instead a message to every single person that reads it that hard-work and finding the right balance can reap rewards that appear only available to a gifted few.
I must have written this post about a thousand times in my head this last week and I don't feel like I've properly been able to hit the mark with it. Let me summarise so that you've got something a bit easier to digest to take away with you. I know I'm clever but I also know that I'm one of millions that are clever - many more are smarter than I am. I know that I'm studying at a great university alongside the future legal minds of Scotland but I also know that I'm only one of about 200 of them, in my year alone. I know that I could probably get by at university by doing the bare minimum but I also know that is crazy. I worked very hard and got very good results - that should be a good enough message to be able to give to you this evening.
Thanks for reading and hopefully taking on board something from this post.
Martin
