Year Two

Second year felt like my first proper year of university. I had taken two summer school courses in between first and second year, and felt very ready to jump back into academics, but this time in-person and on campus. I was a residence don, an executive member of the Politics and the Law society, as well as a member of the fencing team. All of these extracurriculars and job kept me very busy, but I enjoyed being a leader on campus, and feeling like a part of a team.

On the academic front, I had some challenging courses. I took a lot of third year courses, which had signifyingly increased expectations for readings and participation each week. This was a bit of a learning curve, but a challenge that I was prepared to meet.

My biggest takeaway from second year was the caution that should be given to radical ideologies and the importance of examining issues from the perspective of ordinary civilians. In my politics classes there was almost a romanticization of having radical ideas, or of wanting to overthrow some sort of administration (from as little as the university administration, to entire economic systems). In my history classes in comparison, there was a lot more of a recognition of the pain that these societal overhauls can cause, discussed through examples like the English and Russian revolution. Through examining these revolutions from the impact they had on regular people, the dangers inherent to major change became clear. This affected my perspective in my politics classes, and made me more willing to challenge visions for the future by their potential negative impact on ordinary people.