Enrolment

Enrolment was an interesting day and most certainly a lot more stressful than I anticipated. At the start of enrolment, all of the HE Students met up at The Broadway Cinema and I was directed into the cafe area to wait for everything to start. It was already rather busy when I arrived at about a quarter past nine and it was nice to see that I wasn't the only one that was early although because I wasn't exactly first, this meant that I had to join with a table of other student which admittedly put me straight out of my comfort zone.

I tried to remain confident as I could see clearly that we all had our differences, eventually the guy sat opposite me started to generate conversation after most of us had a brief look at the handouts that had been given to us. His name was Matt and he made himself clear that he was the party type and that had already dived head first into the freshers experience the night before. We went around the table introducing ourselves. There was only one name that I struggled to remember and that belonged to girl that sat just two chairs to the left of me. It began with 'V', maybe it was just too early for long names. In our talks I discovered that she had originally studied Law but, dropped out of the course to now study something else (I can't remember what exactly, possibly Business). Going around our table there was a skinny tanned guy with dark hair who I assumed was Korean, his name was Dennis and that amused me too much because I really wasn't expecting that at all but, I managed to contain myself. I can't remember what he was there to study. Next to Dennis there was an Indian chap named Mohammed who was rather quiet compared to the other three and seemed quite shy. More students kept appearing as the starting time approached. Mid conversation, a guy asked to join our table. We could exactly say no so of course he joined. I didn't catch his name but, Matt had worked out that they were both on the same course so he had found himself a friend already.

At about 9:45 a member of NCN's staff invited us up the the cinema area that had been booked for us all. This was where I broke off from my table group, not intentionally but I couldn't help it with the flood of students trying to escape the cafe and climb up the stairs. I was surprised by how large the theatre was, I had never been to The Broadway Cinema before and I can now say that it is very impressive and unsuspectedly large. I sort of ended up sitting on my own. I wasn't really sat with anyone that I knew, as I still didn't know anyone at all apart from the small mixed group I had just briefly met downstairs but I had no idea where they had got to. I knew they were in the room somewhere, I just didn't know where. We had to wait until just past 10 o'clock to allow room for people that might be running late, which I found amusing. The talk, not so much. Once started, there were various "guest" speakers, most of which belonged to the college if not directly, in some way or another. There were representatives from the council talking about how great the city is and how it really is the place to be. It was all very inspiring to be reminded about it all but at the same time when you're familiar with the city, like myself it just seems like a waste of time. Then there was the talk about finance. Anyone that needs a talk about student finance on the day of enrolment must need shooting, I mean if you haven't  got it ready by now what are you playing at.

Eventually after a painful hour, the talk ended and we were all split off into groups divided by what we had chosen to study. There was only one music group so naturally I followed with them. With there being only one music group I was certain that this was my group but, I started to get confused with how few people there were. There was no more that 13 students including myself. It took us a while to figure out where we were meant to be going with Matt Horobin but, after about fifteen minuets of trying to navigate the in's and out's of the NCN Adams building, we got there. We ended up in a small classroom on D Floor, not far from the library, where Matt sat us all down to talk us all through the course. Matt handed out a copy of the course hand book to everyone. This was the point where alarm bells started ringing, in my head obviously. The title of the hand book was "Course Handbook 2016-17 HND Creative Music Technology YEAR 1" which coincidently was not what I was expecting to read. Matt started to explain the content and read though the handbook with us. I think we got over half way through, just after the module overview and the course calendar when Matt asked, "Any questions?". Although it wasn't exactly a question this is when I raised my hand rather awkwardly and said as a reply, "I think I'm in the wrong group." Matt seemed to understand instantly what had happened but just said to me for the time, "I'll have to have a talk with you after."

At this point I was confused and I was also preparing myself for the worst. I was almost in tears in the classroom, I was trying so hard to keep myself together. I pulled out a bottle of water from my bag and used that to try and cool off the stress that was building. What the hell was happening? I mean, I had already worked it out in my head. Why wouldn't he just send me elsewhere to my correct group? Why? My course had been canceled. I didn't find out officially until after Matt had finished his talk with us and instructed us to go down for enrolment in the University Centre. When the others from my group where being told about the process, Matt took my to one side to talk about what had happened. I couldn't hold the tears any longer and ended up crying in front of him, but what I liked about this situation is that Matt didn't just say, "Sorry, that was it." He supported me through working out with me whether or not his course would still be suitable for myself which I really appreciated. We talked about it together for a good ten minutes or so, I don't know I wasn't really counting but it felt like a while, mostly going over the modules and seeing if there was a way to include what I really wanted to do which was performance. His course has some performance elements, not very many but he said there may be ways around some of the work as long as I'm still meeting the criteria. I didn't stop crying, I started to settle but the rest of my group had now moved over to sit just behind us and the slightest wrong thought about the situation was making me upset still.

I did chose to still do Matt's course. I think it will be one hell of a learning curve but, it might also be the push that I needed. I did think about studying music tech but, now maybe I have the best of both worlds to some extent. I have since put a complaint in about the lack of communication about my course being canceled but I've still not heard anything back but I know that I did get the message through to the head of Media, Philip Coates. It is less than a week now till I start my course and I'm becoming more and more excited now I've worked off this fear a little. The fear being, not being on the right course for myself. I do feel like I'm going to learn a lot more on this course than the one I originally applied for. It is going to be difficult, but who said University was easy?

I currently have a practice room booked for tomorrow to get me some practice time on the drums. I do feel like this course had opened up new opportunities for me despite what was bad news because I'm going to be working with both of Andy Scoffin's level 3 students rather soon (and I'm going to be paid in chocolate for playing drums!). Drumming is almost completely new to me so I'm hoping that I can pick it up rather quick. I told Andy I should be alright after a month, lets just hope so!

To finish this blog post I will leave some links to my recent vlogs. I'm very certain that I'm going to continue doing them and I have uploaded four so far. They are intended to be more like bookmarks for me so I can see far how I've come so I'm not always going to share them but they will remain public. I might disable comments eventually though if I have any problems.

26/09/16

01/10/16

03/10/16

Just click on the date to view the video on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe to my channel!