charlotte.BI understand with my sporadic blog appearences, that most of them may appear to be rather random, but after today I’ve honestly just had the pick me up and ‘inspiration’ I need to get me through the January blues. So hopefully this will maybe resonate with other people besides myself.
I’m currently in my third year of University and tackiling the part that every student dreads . . . the dissertation. Yes my friends it comes faster than you expect. Truthfully I hadn’t done as much preperation as I could have but as soon as the 2nd of January dawned ( and I’d fully recoverd from my new years at Edinburgh Hogmany) I began to wittle away.
It began with the obsessive reading, making sure I’ve got enough information to write a book, due to being the unlucky type thats word count is always in the 10% less area. After three days of now moving from the dent in my bed, I decided to have interaction with others, get a fresh perspective ( as by this point I’d completley forgotton what I was writing about anymore) and then began to just write.
All the way I was going through thinking’ yes, this is going really well’ secretley thinking I may even break the 10% less barrier. but 1,600 words or so in to it and writers block hits me like a tonne of bricks. So I e-mail my tutors explain that I’ve no idea where to go from with my introduction etc. when She has a great idea, for my dissertation I am researching durational perfomance, with reference to two particular artists, who within their two specific performances predominently walk for the majority of it. Therefore we came up with the idea for me to walk for an extended amount of time, around Sheffield with no particular destination in mind and see how I feel whilst doing it.
Honestly it was the best thing I could have done, I started at 8:30am and every 15 minutes I stopped to write down, my thoughts, feelings, where I had got to and what I had encountered on my journey. I ended up going to the Botanical Gardens, and having never been there before found it absolutley gorgeous. In my mind I had set the task of walking for three hours, so that I could give myself a decent walk but also get back to carry on with work. This is coming from someone who since passing her dirving test regualrly forgets how to put one foot infront of the other as appose to putting her key in the ignition ( not that I walked an incredible amount before).
My journey ended up taking me to places that I regularly drive past, yet beacuse I am driving are invisible. I couldn’t believe how many things I have never noticed before. I live in a life ruled by Chronophobia, yet during those three hours I let time slip away ( so to speak) and really took my time to acknowledge my surroundings. After nearly 21 years of living in this City I can still find new places. I even discoverd a live music bar called Delayneys that I fully intend to go to on one of their Irish music or Blues nights.
So although I seem to have gone on a slight tangent. What I’m trying to say is that if you’re like me and let time rule your life. Just stop every once and awhile and just take a slow aimless walk through the streets of your city. you never know what you may find. I’ve come away feeling increibly positive and ready to take on the dreaded task of continuing my dissertation.