English

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COLLEGE LIFE

The merry-go-round of college life is something that one never forgets. It’s a fascinating, fantastic, fabulous experience, irrespective of the fact whether one is a full-time or a part-time student.

Who can forget the first day at the university when one turns from an applicant who has passed entrance exams into a first-year student? I did it! I entered, I got into the university. A solemn ceremony in front of the university building and serious people making speeches. Hey, lad, do you happen to know who they are? Who? The rector, vice-rectors, deans, subdeans... and what about those ladies? Okay. Some of them must be professors, some – associate or assistant professors, but, of course, all of them have high academic degrees. And where are our lecturers and tutors? Oh, how nice...

The monitors hand out student membership cards, student record books and library cards – one feels like a real person. First celebrations and then days of hard work. So many classes, so many new subjects to put on the timetable! The curriculum seems to be developed especially for geniuses. Lectures, seminars and tutorials. Home preparations; a real avalanche of homeworks.

If one can not cope with the work load of college he or she immediately starts lagging behind. It is easier to keep pace with the programme than to catch up with it later. Everyone tries hard to be, or at least to look, diligent. First tests and examinations sessions. The first successes and first failures: “I have passed!” or “He has not given me a pass!” Tears and smiles. And a long-awaited vacation.

The merry-go-round runs faster. Assignments, written reproductions, compositions, synopses, papers. Translations checked up and marked. “Professor, I have never played truant, I had a good excuse for missing classes”. Works handed in and handed out. Reading up for exams. “No, professor, I have never cheated – no cribs. I just crammed”.

Junior students become senior. Still all of them are one family – undergraduates. Students’ parties in the students’ club. Meeting people and parting with people. You know, Nora is going to be expelled and Dora is going to graduate with honors. Yearly essays, graduation dissertations, finals...

What? A teacher’s certificate? You mean I’ve got a degree in English? I am happy! It is over! It is over... Is it over? Oh, no...
A postgraduate course, a thesis, an oral, and a degree in Philology. The first of September. Where are the students of the faculty of foreign languages? Is it the English department? Oh, how nice...