Oooh, Elanor – now I fully understand your recent post about being a university “elder”. For some reason this year everyone just seems so young. Colourful, perky, carefree – the place looks like a cross between Temptation Island and Dawson’s. I just felt so alien going back (a sentiment shared by many). Maybe I’m finally reaching my expiration date? Even people in my Honours coursework subjects seem like babies. Cause I started mid-year 2003, I’m basically half a year ahead of everyone else. This allows me to sneak a wry smile as people talk about their proposed thesis topic. With an innocent, naïve glint in their eyes they talk about “making an intervention into the comparative blah blah relating to the poetics of blah blah, in a study informed by blah blah”. Just wait til you try and write the thing! Then you’ll stop reaching for the stars, give up the idea of making a critical “intervention”, realise that most things that are vaguely interesting have been said before, decide that the best option is a quiet nervous breakdown/existential crisis in lieu of actually doing any work, then eventually spurt out something passable as the panic finally hits. Enjoy the “journey” as your thesis changes from delightful baby to be lovingly nurtured and tended, to horrid parasite that simply needs to be expelled…