Just to see if I Could

Wednesday afternoon, my interview at Queen May, University of London, afterwards a brief meet up with a Symonds friend, who goes to UCL, and her QMUL boyfriend. The interviews were meant to be only 15 minutes, by the time the academic felt he'd got enough from me the taster drama workshop had already started. I apologised meekly to the practitioner and put my stuff to the side and joined the circle, the Scottish girl I befriended on the day whispered to me 'that was a long time!'

20 minutes of rambling on about everything that excites me about the English language, literature and drama - finishing reading Barack Obama's fascinating, inspiring biography; ordering The Travels of Ibn Battutah on Amazon the night before; discovering the musical Hamilton and the cultural/historical significance of conflicting musical styles. I couldn't tell if I was able to properly communicate my tremendous excitement to the interviewer, but whatever, it was enough, however truthful and accurate it was. It took QMUL just over 24 hours to get back.

Maybe I'm more inspired by Alexander Hamilton than I would have otherwise realised. Though I hadn't heard the lyrics of the musical nor had I really known that much about the ten-dollar-founding-father before, the past few months have been a slow revelation of this Hamilton-fire-burning desire to explode up and out. 'Imma get a scholarship to Kings college / I shouldn't brag but dag I amaze and astonish' - 4 Russell Group universities, some of the best in the country for English and/or drama. Maybe he and I have something in common, even if it is just to his fictional representation.


After Warwick got back to me last week it was mainly just a choice between there and Birmingham, my two top choice for the utter wonderment at the courses they have on offer and the huge and diverse populations of inspired students. I figured I'd go to QMUL anyway and found another great place to study my passion to the precision of its furthest extremes: maybe in another life.

Warwick has hugely passionate and energetic teaching staff with an interesting range of syllabi, and a buzz in their student spaces which crackles with an academic electricity. It could be a natural choice, as a guide on the day told me it was third in the UK only to Oxbridge.

However, I think Birmingham is my choice. My first proper, big choice - all mine, to fuck up or reach for the stars as I see fit. All mine, at the helm, the captain of my own 'course'. The teachers at Brummy seemed a little more subdued than Warwick, but quirky enough to keep an education interesting. The buzz in the student spaces was similar to Warwick, but slightly less academic in its electricity, more friendly and welcoming, and I think that's what hooked me. That, and the amazing study abroad opportunities and absolutely insane links to the prestige of the great canon of literature - the Shakespeare Institute, links to the RSC, a traditional school-wide end-of-semester field trip to nearby Stratford-upon-Avon.

The plan, then, is Drama and English at Birmingham. An intercalated year abroad at either UConn or Rutgers University in New Jersey, so I can take day trips to watch plays in (and off-)Broadway (hence I'm cramming overtime now at work to pay for it then!), to study something in the vein of Oxford's PPE - history, philosophy, politics - something like that to get a keener grasp on the forces which shape the world literature and theatre emerge from, then study some political theatre in the final year on my return. Then, I want to do Central's MA in classical acting - who knows, maybe 4 years after turning down two of the University of London's colleges I'll be going there after all. Studying the Greeks, Shakespeare, Commedia and Stanislavski in one year seems an actual dream, but who knows what winding paths of fasc-in-ation university will lead me down before then.

I'm sorry that over the past few weeks I haven't been updating this blog; as my UCAS Track attests to I've been somewhat busy recently. Now is my chance to step up to the plate and continue realising my goals, realise the aims I set for myself in my new years resolutions. I'm burning with interest and excitement, I want to know and do anything. To sum it up in the words of the words of Hamilton:

I'm past patiently waiting

I'm passionately smashing every expectation 

Every action's an act of creation

 Here goes.