Hilary Term

This is a rather quixotic world, with a vocabulary all of its own. Most universities would refer to their terms or semesters numerically or maybe according to the season. But not here in O. The terms are named after angels or some significant religious event. That is what happens when the university is over nine hundred and twenty years old. Time, or rather meaningful time, a millennium ago was marked more by religious events. In this case, M’s 2nd term is called Hilary, after the feast day of St Hilary which falls on 14th January which was when term started. The first term is Michaelmas after the feast of St Michael and all angels and the third and final term of the year is Trinity, which starts after Trinity Sunday.

I am on my way to Davos and thought I drop by and see her. She has already moved into a a new room at NG, sat for her first collections (another curious word to describe exams) which test a student’s grasp (or recollection?) of what was thought the term before. M sat for this in a chapel, wearing a black and white gown (sub fusc). I think I have confused you, dear reader, enough. And it is indeed into this disorienting world that M stepped into all by herself, having lived in the relative comfort and safety of home for over 19 years.

She is assigned a new room for Hilary Term and it is larger and faces the Gardens of the Nunnery. Previously, she was also facing the “Gardens”: the road called N Gardens :-). So progress!

 The real progress is that she packed up her previous room and unpacked fully into her new room. It’s often said that household skills skip a generation because an unusually able parent (in, say, packing) would do all of that to the extent that the child need never do it. D is that unusually skilled packer, so M had to learn really fast, and learned she did. Although she had only moved in less than a week ago, when I stepped into her room this morning, it felt really settled in already.

She has indeed had to navigate through many new situations. Some are trivial: do I join my friends to the club or not? Some are simple: where do I lunch today? Some are important: which course do I take/drop next term/year? Whatever she chose, she also learnt that there are no wrong decisions. Life is wonderful that way. It is a journey that allows for course correction... so there are no failures, just learnings. Don’t enjoy clubbing after deciding to go, then leave early. The lunch place was not up to expectations, avoid it the next time. Even with courses, there are always new knowledge to be gained. M is obviously putting her thinking and analytical skills to bear as she makes these decisions: big and small and in time she would know which are the big stuff to think more deeply about and which small stuff not worth sweating gray matter over.

Right now, she is getting ready for her third and final collections for the start of this term. It so happens to be about evolution. We have all evolved over millennia and in M’s case, in just a few short months, she has already evolved into a more independent person and more ready to take on the world.