the ramblings of a twenty-something mind... wonderful (or terrible, depending on who you are) as they may be, are published here for me to air my thoughts, so that when I bring them in they are a little drier and smell nicer, which means that I can do more with them...
... and just because pointless stories are my thing.
The title of this blog is a recognition that time trickles away from all of us. Now in the final year of my Master's degree of Chemical Engineering, the time will soon come to leave Manchester. In fact, in less than six month's I'll have graduated! (Assuming I don't fail). As it's my final year the workload has certainly stepped up a notch. Over the next ten weeks the main part of my work will go into producing a 500 page report (roughly) which will look something like this:
Yes, it really will be this big.
As well as this, as the over 18 Ecumenical Rep for the Methodist Church, I'll be jetting off all over the place to attend meetings in different churches. I'll be blogging about those experiences over at the 3Generate Reps blog here. Keep an eye on it/follow it to keep up to date with not only my goings-on but also what's happening with the Reps generally - I think I'm privileged to be working with such a great team of young people and staff. I promise I'll blog again soon with something a bit more profound and interesting - although maybe my everyday life is interesting to some of you. Tell me, what have you been up to recently? What are your plans for the next six months?
I've already said that Advent is a time of preparation. Today I've been preparing not for Christmas, but for exams. Or I should say, "I've been preparing to prepare".
When I revise, I need everything around me to be clear of distractions. That means that everything has to be spick and span; everything has it's time and place. Those who know me will know that although the rest of the house is *usually* tidy, my room is quite often a different story. Today, that is no more! My room is ready for me to start my revision.
There is a large space on my desk (I hope large enough!)
My clothes are all put away
My stuff is all put away
I have a small pile of Christmas presents to wrap (they will be wrapped on Tuesday afternoon, according to my Plan)
My Revision Plan (note capital P) is done, coloured and on my door where I see it every time I walk into my room
Tomorrow I can start preparing for my exams properly.
I’ve
felt like blogging for quite some time now.
I’ve even come up with twelve (yes, twelve!) different subjects about
which I would like to blog, but I’ve had neither the time nor the
thought-processes to be able to blog those things that I wanted.
However,
I’ve decided to attempt to go back to this blogging-on-Sundays thing. I’m not too sure how it will pan out, but
we’ll see.
There are lots of questions today. If you have answers to any of them, I’d love
to hear them.
Today’s blog is all about decisions, I suppose. Decisions are things that I can find easy
(walk or bus to uni?) or difficult (how to do my hair today?). They can have trivial consequences (which bed
set do I put on my bed?) or less-trivial ones (what sort of jobs should I apply
for?). They can have a definite time
(what should I have for tea today?) or a vaguer one (how am I going to show
what’s important in my life?).
On 1st December, a good friend of mine got
married. While we were there, I met the
10-month old daughter of another good friend (who is, by the way, gorgeous). Both friends seem so happy. It makes me wonder if I’ve somehow
unwittingly lost my way with my priorities in life. Have I got this thing called life wrong? Am I planning where I should be living? Am I dreaming when I should be working?
Can a dream be worked towards, even if you don’t know how
your current work will lead to your dream?
If you don’t love what you do, why do it? These are linked to decision-making for me at
the moment because I am coming to the end of my Masters degree – in an area
about which I am not exactly passionate.
The work is interesting, for the most part, certainly. But I’m not sure quite how passionate you can
get about a pump. Or a heat exchanger.
(Distillation columns, on the other hand...)
One thing that would be nice to know is how much the
decisions that we make now will affect our lives from this point. I remember watching a German film once about
something along the lines of the Butterfly Effect – the theory that a butterfly
flapping its wings (or not) on the other side of the world will have some
effect here. Perhaps this is better
illustrated by the Doctor Who episode “Turn Left”,
but it amounts to the same thing. Does
making the “right” decision depend on the time at which it is made? Would a certain decision be wrong today, but
right tomorrow?
How can decision-making be God-centred when he seems so
silent about the whole thing? A recent visit to a friend threw up all sorts
of questions for me – some about things that I realised I should be making a
conscious decision about. If I want my
life to be God-centred, how should I go about doing that? What, or how, can I structure my life so that
God’s love is palpable? That’s the kind
of life I want. The kind I described a
year or so ago here. The kind where everyone knows they’re
welcome. Everyone knows they’re
loved. Everyone knows they’ll be
listened to. And everyone knows that if
I can help do anything to help them, I will.
All without me telling them – they just know. That’s what I want. But how to go about it?
Thy Word is a lamp
unto my feet and a light unto my path.
When I feel afraid, and I think I’ve lost my way, still you’re there
right beside me. And nothing will I
fear, as long as you are near. Please be
near me to the end.- Amy Grant
Struggling with Job Applications at the moment. Disclaimer: I would never actually write this in a job application form. I take job applications very seriously... but this is a good bit of fun, which addresses the fact that very often everyone is thinking about cake, and its benefits in the workplace, but it is rarely mentioned. (well, that's what John said)...
Dear big multi-national corporation,
I think you should employ me because, quite frankly, I need some money. I have been at university for the last 4 years, which means that I have managed to accrue some debt. As I would like to live in a nice house when I graduate, I am in rather urgent need of some financial assets that will aid me in this venture. In addition to needing somewhere to live, I also need money to buy cake-making supplies. Rest assured that I will see this as an investment on your part and will pay back interest on this investment in cake-form. To show my good will I will even let you choose the type of cake I make first. As you are a multi-national corporation, I anticipate having to requisition some of your machinery so that I will be able to demonstrate my advanced chemical engineering skills in order to produce a cake of suitable size such that all may partake of its goodness.
This particular skill, when considered alongside my need of money in our materialistic society and my qualities as a generally nice person, should set me far above any other candidate you may choose to consider. I appreciate that you must keep up appearances when dealing with other candidates, so will also bring cake to interviews and assessment centres to give a foretaste of the banquet I am capable of preparing when I work for you.
