For those of faint heart or simple fear of homoerotic man-love, turn back...
For the rest, know that this isn't a vain attempt at getting congratulations, or woeful bait for pity rep, but a heartfelt thanks directed your way.
You may not know me from old 606 ("The Judean People's Front", and it quickly became annoyingly unfunny typing back to people "**** off, We're the People's Front of Judea... Splitter" whenever they quoted me), but I joined at the age of 17 as I was beginning a degree at Strathclyde for Mathematics and Physics (Scotland doesn't have a college system, so you go to Uni young). I've quite an intense social anxiety, and so I found comfort and distraction from study by discussing the Toon and offloading as many witticisms as I could relating Sunderland to incest (my favourite being, in the heart of an intense back and forth, "In relation t... Oh wait a second, that's a Mackem phrase isn't it, what with you chaps always being "in" relations?"). I find it hard meeting new people, but Newcastle (and indeed football) is a common interest and theme that transcends nervousness or embarrassment. Watch a match and you form an opinion. And so I spent many hours pushing off work to discuss if Shola would ever come good (in my opinion he did
), or if such and such a player would make a good addition, or whether Badgers would indeed supplant humanity... I never considered the online contingent of Only1KK, or Modface, or I Sit Next to a Badger in the Leazes Corner etc etc true Friends, but it was a necessary interaction if I was ever going to be able to socially integrate, or find intellectual stimulus (even if that stimulus is getting into a argument with a Mackem, using the "I slept with your sister" line, him responding by saying that his sister was 6 (though he later said she was 34, phew), to which I said "Well that's about 42 in dog years"... Classic) because forcing myself into a room with people who had nothing in common with me was so god damn hard.
A year on, I had passed all my exams, but decided Maths and Physics was too boring (go figure), so was looking for options. My father at this point said (almost biblical, this has become to my memory), "I want to move down to england, if you come I will buy you a season ticket" (we used to only be able to go to the odd Newcastle vs Birmingham match, living in Scotland after we moved their when I was 13). So, after quick soul-searching I applied to do Archaeology and Ancient History at Durham and Newcastle University, a long with combinations of Archaeology, Ancient History, History etc for back-up, in my zeal for the ticket! Accepted to Durham, I rejected the offer even though Newcastle University only accepted me on the single honours Archaeology course. The latter just felt right (later I visited Durham University... Good job I didn't go, I'm naff at Quidditch and I'd have been expelled in the first five minutes of lunch for asking when the sorting ceremony took place), however.
Fortunately, my first year results were good enough to allow me to change degree status to combined honours Archaeology and Ancient History. During the course of my second I switched over to Not606 (cheers Syd) because the old site closed (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and posted under this name in much the same fashion, with one change, I had met a girl on summer excavation (who had to lay on some pretty heavy hints she wanted to date me before I got the message), so obviously I posted a tad less...
Now (literally from 00.01am today), third and final year results are up. I narrowly missed a first, with a 68.2 average this year and a 69.something average last year to achieve a 2:1 BA with honours. Am I gutted I missed the first? I genuinely can say not at all, because I picked the hardest classes I could and pushed myself hard, and I just came up short (it's not my fault some of the lecturer's are dumb pricks... Just joking!). Out of the last two years, my lowest scores were 61 and 64, which dragged my mark down, but these were modules that required skills I didn't have, but which I have now honed.
But that's definitely not what I'm most proud of, I'm proud of the fact I've spent three years taking forward what I learned from these forums, finding an underlying common interest and coming out of my shell enough to meet others and their views half-way. For this I owe unreserved thanks to those that give their time to make forums like this what they are. The debates themselves informed my essays with the kind of scrutiny and detail they'd have never had otherwise, because no academic can snap through an argument like a Not606-er or 606-er, even if their contention is boneheaded (*cough* Mackems *cough*), they'd never give in until the dying breath. More than that, they allowed me to see what was most important to me and go for it, and I will never look back.
So thank you all. Even those Mackems, I guess (who aren't so bad). You have unwittingly taken process in the action of changing my life for the better, as sad as that may seem to you.
Roll on the social anxiety bashing...
Roll on the rest of our lives... That's literally as much as I'll ever divulge so you don't steal my pathetic identity!
Roll on the "Toon for Premier League Title" campaign... Deluded til I die! I've held a season ticket since we went down to the Championship, and now my girlfriend has one next to me.
For the rest, know that this isn't a vain attempt at getting congratulations, or woeful bait for pity rep, but a heartfelt thanks directed your way.
You may not know me from old 606 ("The Judean People's Front", and it quickly became annoyingly unfunny typing back to people "**** off, We're the People's Front of Judea... Splitter" whenever they quoted me), but I joined at the age of 17 as I was beginning a degree at Strathclyde for Mathematics and Physics (Scotland doesn't have a college system, so you go to Uni young). I've quite an intense social anxiety, and so I found comfort and distraction from study by discussing the Toon and offloading as many witticisms as I could relating Sunderland to incest (my favourite being, in the heart of an intense back and forth, "In relation t... Oh wait a second, that's a Mackem phrase isn't it, what with you chaps always being "in" relations?"). I find it hard meeting new people, but Newcastle (and indeed football) is a common interest and theme that transcends nervousness or embarrassment. Watch a match and you form an opinion. And so I spent many hours pushing off work to discuss if Shola would ever come good (in my opinion he did
), or if such and such a player would make a good addition, or whether Badgers would indeed supplant humanity... I never considered the online contingent of Only1KK, or Modface, or I Sit Next to a Badger in the Leazes Corner etc etc true Friends, but it was a necessary interaction if I was ever going to be able to socially integrate, or find intellectual stimulus (even if that stimulus is getting into a argument with a Mackem, using the "I slept with your sister" line, him responding by saying that his sister was 6 (though he later said she was 34, phew), to which I said "Well that's about 42 in dog years"... Classic) because forcing myself into a room with people who had nothing in common with me was so god damn hard. A year on, I had passed all my exams, but decided Maths and Physics was too boring (go figure), so was looking for options. My father at this point said (almost biblical, this has become to my memory), "I want to move down to england, if you come I will buy you a season ticket" (we used to only be able to go to the odd Newcastle vs Birmingham match, living in Scotland after we moved their when I was 13). So, after quick soul-searching I applied to do Archaeology and Ancient History at Durham and Newcastle University, a long with combinations of Archaeology, Ancient History, History etc for back-up, in my zeal for the ticket! Accepted to Durham, I rejected the offer even though Newcastle University only accepted me on the single honours Archaeology course. The latter just felt right (later I visited Durham University... Good job I didn't go, I'm naff at Quidditch and I'd have been expelled in the first five minutes of lunch for asking when the sorting ceremony took place), however.
Fortunately, my first year results were good enough to allow me to change degree status to combined honours Archaeology and Ancient History. During the course of my second I switched over to Not606 (cheers Syd) because the old site closed (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and posted under this name in much the same fashion, with one change, I had met a girl on summer excavation (who had to lay on some pretty heavy hints she wanted to date me before I got the message), so obviously I posted a tad less...
Now (literally from 00.01am today), third and final year results are up. I narrowly missed a first, with a 68.2 average this year and a 69.something average last year to achieve a 2:1 BA with honours. Am I gutted I missed the first? I genuinely can say not at all, because I picked the hardest classes I could and pushed myself hard, and I just came up short (it's not my fault some of the lecturer's are dumb pricks... Just joking!). Out of the last two years, my lowest scores were 61 and 64, which dragged my mark down, but these were modules that required skills I didn't have, but which I have now honed.
But that's definitely not what I'm most proud of, I'm proud of the fact I've spent three years taking forward what I learned from these forums, finding an underlying common interest and coming out of my shell enough to meet others and their views half-way. For this I owe unreserved thanks to those that give their time to make forums like this what they are. The debates themselves informed my essays with the kind of scrutiny and detail they'd have never had otherwise, because no academic can snap through an argument like a Not606-er or 606-er, even if their contention is boneheaded (*cough* Mackems *cough*), they'd never give in until the dying breath. More than that, they allowed me to see what was most important to me and go for it, and I will never look back.
So thank you all. Even those Mackems, I guess (who aren't so bad). You have unwittingly taken process in the action of changing my life for the better, as sad as that may seem to you.
Roll on the social anxiety bashing...
Roll on the rest of our lives... That's literally as much as I'll ever divulge so you don't steal my pathetic identity!
Roll on the "Toon for Premier League Title" campaign... Deluded til I die! I've held a season ticket since we went down to the Championship, and now my girlfriend has one next to me.
