Soo.. Blogging.
This is genuinely my first attempt at a blog and as a very busy student engineer and photographer and everything-else-doer, this could be interesting or very bland and well, a little crap, but we live in hope; or at least, for now.
As an engineer I am not all that creative when it comes to writing, despite past pipe-dreams of writing books myself and actually assisting in the writing of one which is now published (go check out Kieran Lowley's book; The Darkness), and also whilst I am a visually quite creative with editing each of the photos you will see on my website, I am generally not that much of a creative scribbler.
However, a lot of my friends have started this blogging thing and seem to enjoy it, so I thought I'd get in on the act too.
Now, for the 'what should I write about' in my first blog. Hmm, what is a prevalent part of my life around about now. University.
You get to hear my opinion of 2 lovely and tedious completed years of university, with the 3rd just starting and a 4th just waiting around the corner, and potentially more if fate decides it...
Lets first have some context. I am a student at the University of Exeter, one of the 24 leading prestigious Russel Group universities in the UK, based in Devon, South West UK.
I have been both fortunate, more so than some, in my academic and educational past. I have, since the ripe old age of 8, had an idea of what I wanted to do as a career - civil engineering. Now before many (most) of you ask 'What is that?' Civil Engineering is engineering that is concerned with large structures and infrastructure, so roads, bridges, buildings (all shapes and sizes), tunnels and much much more. There are more technical and fulfilling explanations for this but thats what google and wikipedia were created for.
So, following my aspirations of following in the footsteps of the great engineers of the past that built much of the foundations that a staggeringly large amount of today's world stands on, I chose, with my parents help; I'm only 8 after all, to focus my work on a route that would get me to be a civil engineer. I was reasonable at maths and science subjects, particularly physics, and had a reasonable idea of what was sensible or not (you will likely realise in future that this is not entirely true) so I had a good basis to go from. After the wonderful years of primary school, secondary school started up. This is where things would get interesting and I could do what I wanted and become and engineer is what I thought. I was quickly proved wrong when making friends in the school yard and learning what PSHE actually is became more of a focus than anything else in the little world I had encountered at that age. I digress. Back to the point.
Secondary school was relatively uninteresting with the exception of GCSEs where I had my first opportunity to tailor my education. There was an engineering subject availible and low and behold, I took it. I was relatively successful and, despite my dreams of bridges and skyscrapers and all that interesting stuff, they had us researching skateboard and guitar designs. I kid you not. Thats most of what we did. It was more than dissapointing. Although I must have done something right as I got an award from a private company that reviewed our work.
So, onwards to A-levels. This is where things got all rather more interesting. Gone were the days of scripted or semi-scripted education topics. These were all my own choices and the people doing them, had genuine interest in them so they were meant to be soo many levels better than GCSEs. This was true on the most part. But sadly, this is still only the most part. I had grand ambitions for my A-levels, and so, I went for A-level Maths and Further Maths, Geology, Physics and Geography. Yes. I was foolishly ambitious and went for 5 A-levels. I wanted to prove all the critics, nay-sayers and frankly myself too, and do what seemed to be impossible. Oh how I would learn to regret that decision, although I certainly found my limit in the process.
I then ended up carrying on with Maths, Physics and Geology and in some cases, really enjoyed it, but it was one hell of a slog and you really have to earn each of those 600 marks over the 2 years.
It was during my A-level years, where I had my first career dilemma. Should I go to Uni or not. I initially decided not to go in the standard route, and do a part time course with Laing O'Rourke. This route didnt prove successful to me, despite the interview giving me assurances that I would go through, and as such, I ended up in Uni.
The main reason for me going through to Uni in the first place is that in order for me to follow my dreams as a Civil Engineer, Chartered accreditation is required in order to progress properly. In order to do so, a Masters degree is required so off to Uni I went.
I am now in the summer after my 3rd year and I am sorely looking forward to finishing it all and getting into it all professionally. My story at Uni is going to be the topic for another time.
Till next time,
Ben