These kids are so much younger than me!

After a two-year absence from academia, I did feel a little bit of trepidation about going back to school.  While being a member of the working world comes with its own grumbles and groans, I at least had my evenings and weekends to do with as I pleased, guilt-free, for the first time since I was about five.  So as the beginning of classes has been looming closer, I've been worrying a bit.  Will I be able to get back into the routine of doing homework, writing papers, taking tests, managing my time efficiently, etc?

I went to two induction meetings today: one for everyone in Moray House (which is my school within the College of Humanities and Social Science), and one for all the people starting Taught Postgraduate programs.

And I was amazed at how much I felt at home.

Being in a huge lecture hall, surrounded by fellow students, listening to the person with the microphone talk, feels as familiar and comforting as a favorite hoodie.  So did being one of the multitudes streaming in and out of the various buildings I visited on various errands today (I am now officially registered, and have my student ID - yay!).  Living in a foreign country, even this one that I'm utterly familiar with and love so much, is taking some getting used to.  But what I experienced today was a dose of real familiarity that I didn't realize I needed until now.  As the speakers at the Taught Postgrad meeting said today, twelve months for an MSc program is a fast pace, and four months to write a dissertation is even faster.  I know I'm in for stress and sleepless nights and tears this year, but you know what?  It's nothing that I haven't dealt with and handled before, and I will handle it again.

***

Now for the more quotidian part of the update.  I didn't actually get anything done yesterday.  First I went to Adam House to get my registration stuff sorted, and was promptly told "If you've done it online you're fine, you can come back tomorrow to handle whatever, OH GOD THERE ARE FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE HERE PLEASE GO AWAY."  Because, being the first day of Freshers Week, it was a madhouse.  So then I went to the main library on George Square, to go to a meeting on how to find a part-time job.  When I got there, I found out that I couldn't get past the lobby without my student ID, and I wouldn't be able to get that until the next day (today).  And so, grumbling about how dysfunctional this university is (not unlike my alma mater, good old UNC), I caught a bus back to my flat, made a cup of tea, and read a book in the living room as the remnants of Hurricane Katia lashed down.  But there's another of those job-finding meetings on Thursday, so no harm done in the end.

For most of yesterday and the first half of today, the end of the song "I Wish I Could Go Back to College" from Avenue Q was playing in my head on a continuous loop.  Specifically:

I walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God,
These kids are so much younger than me!"

Aside from wading through all the 18-year-olds cluttering George Square yesterday, this morning's Moray House induction was geared mainly toward the frosh.  But tonight there's a ceilidh specifically for the grown-ups postgrads...