Freshers are confronted with yet another Oxford phrase, ‘Fifth week blues’. By reaching the fifth week of a busy term crammed with deadlines and social events, many students report feeling exhausted or down in the dumps at this stage in term. As fifth week draws to a close and sixth week is about to begin, I reflect upon my experience of this Oxford phenomenon.
Fifth week’s arrival marks the halfway point in Michaelmas. My flatmate told me she feels like we only moved in yesterday, yet time seems to be passing very slowly for me. It feels like a lifetime ago that my train arrived at the station. A room once bare is decorated with my photos. Many memories have already been made in this room, subjecting my friends to my Midnights addiction, and peoplewatching from my ground floor window. The amount of work I’ve done in these five weeks also amazes me. Many hours of enriching lectures later, whole notebooks are filled, documents form a large folder on my laptop.
Speaking of laptops, today I got the fright of my life at the end of fifth week, when I opened my laptop to submit an essay. A Sunday deadline at 1.45 pm loomed like a bad omen when I woke up with an Atik stamp on my hand. When I logged in, I was greeted with the terrifying revelation that my laptop had disconnected from all possible networks. When I searched for salvation in Pret, it did not even recognise this Wi-Fi. After running a troublesome trouble shooting test, a pop up informed me that I may be experiencing hardware-related problems, and this induced a hardware problem within me. I became the child of the exorcist, possessed by panic. How would I write my essays or survive without Wi-Fi? To make matters worse, Word appeared as white as snow and all my files said they were on compatibility view, so I was no longer compatible with my own files. As the blue banner of Microsoft Word faded, I felt the fifth week blues set in. I shut down my computer twice and turned it back on, but it continued to torment me. I had to take photos of my work and craft an email in German describing my problems that seems suspiciously more like just wanting an excuse to miss a deadline. My college brother came to my rescue by telling me simply to press the reset button. As if by magic, the files were restored, and the demon was back in her box. As a Bear Lane resident’s therapy dog patters past my window, I long for the love of my life, Tess. Stroking her fur relieves all my stress.
To cure fifth week blues Lincoln’s welfare officers welcomed Bertie, a beautiful golden retriever therapy dog. He sat stoically as his owner dressed him in an Oxford gown and mortar board. My friend discovered her abandoned gown coated in his blonde locks later that day but found it iconic. He posed for pictures, cuddled strangers, shook our hands like a gentleman. Bertie’s return to Lincoln’s JCR as an honouree member filled me with a joy like no other; the ultimate cure to fifth week blues is not to bury yourself in books or to join the masses at Bridge but to find a dog to love. Never underestimate the power of the reset button.
As sixth week calls, I look at my planner, boxes already stuffed with tutorials, translations, and essays. Although I feel like I’ve been here a lifetime and miss my bath and my dog, I don’t want to wish away these memorable weeks. I look forward to seeing what the next few weeks have in store. A lot happens in Oxford in twenty-four hours.
Image credit: Alex Block
‘This is how it’s always been’
‘This is how its always been’ is a much-repeated phrase, but is one we seriously need to reflect on if we are to make progress as a society. Just sticking with the status quo means we continue to make the same mistakes as in the past and ultimately stilts society from further developing in a productive way. It doesn’t mean you are doing anything right or great if everyone else has done it the same way – its only by asking the difficult questions and thinking in new ways that we can truly unleash the everybody’s potential.
A good example of this is to reflect on how Oxbridge have branded themselves in the past – as being so good they didn’t need to do any work to attract candidates. Instead of trying to draw talent from all parts of the UK, there was a sense that everyone must know what they were about so if they were the ‘right’ sort of people they would apply. ‘This is how it’s always been’ you could say, and they continue to be seen as two of the best universities in the world.
In recent years the University of Oxford have launched new schemes including Opportunity Oxford which I personally benefited from. The whole aim of Opportunity Oxford is to smooth the transition from sixth form to university, ensuring those who come from the most disadvantaged schools have as good an opportunity to thrive in their degree as a student from any other schooling background. This is just one example of questioning the status quo, increasing social inclusion and preparedness while trying to level the educational playing field as students enter the University. It is by no means a perfect scheme. It continues to be fine tuned year by year but certainly shows how we should push to think differently and to innovate.
No longer does the University rely on its sheer weight of prestige. It now runs hundreds of school workshops across the country to try to encourage the best students to apply regardless of background. There are still students who no doubt would thrive in this environment who haven’t been given the opportunity to simply because they haven’t seen anyone like them go and do it. There’s still much to do in the University itself to ensure all students feel included. However, progress is being made and comes from asking difficult questions about how to assess potential and the moral duty that universities have to inspire those in their surrounding areas.
Thinking the status quo cannot be changed and not daring to imagine a better future are some of the biggest barriers that hold us back from revolutionising many aspects of everyday life. Precedent is not always best – let’s hear out people’s different perspectives and ultimately if they have a convincing case things should change.
Things shouldn’t just change for the sake of it and certainly decisions are sometimes made based on solid evidence as to why they were the right ones previously. But if we allow ourselves to be constrained by the status quo, we hold back so much creativity and innovation. I don’t want to bring in a long list of historical examples, but many of the most important steps towards Britain becoming a democracy took place because difficult questions were asked as to why things were as they were. By bringing different perspectives to the table we engage with points of view or interpretations and that is the power of thinking beyond the today.
I want to reflect briefly on disability policy, something I’m passionate about as someone with fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a condition that means I am unable to write due to nerve pains, means I suffer crippling pain across my body, and means at points my mobility is very variable. When someone schedules a meeting up multiple flights of stairs, it is not owing to malicious intent, it is simply because it is not a perspective they may have engaged with in the past. We need to be mindful of others, but ultimately the difference between a good leader and a bad one is that a good leader acknowledges the limits of their knowledge and learns for the future. The burden shouldn’t fall on disabled people to constantly have to advocate for themselves and certainly goes against the spirit of the Equality Act 2010 which encourages minimal barriers to engagement for disabled people. Having perspectives like this at the decision-making table is hugely important as they may bring a life experience nobody else has had, making individuals feel more welcome.
Certainly, try to understand as many perspectives as possible but be open to change in all forms. Just because it has worked in the past does not mean it is the way forward for the future and inertia is the enemy of change. Society makes progress by knocking those barriers down one by one, asking one difficult question at a time, and daring to think beyond just what we know. Change can feel uncomfortable but we need to embrace it if we are to become a more inclusive society. ‘This Is How Its Always Been’ is one of the easiest ways to block good ideas, fresh ideas, and to block societal change that is badly needed for everyone to feel included. So, the next time you hear the phrase question if there genuinely is a case for things to stay as they always have been, or if it’s time to think differently.
Image: CC2:0// Via Wikimedia Commons