Date: 18 October 2006 10:25:36
Thanks Smudgie and Dave for the comments - here's a little account of my yesterday and some of my random musings, which I'll submit to History Matters sometime later today.
I'm struggling to think of anything particularly "history making" in my day today (other days recently, maybe, but not today). Today was the first day I was teaching this year (I'm a PhD student, but take tutorials a day a week for my department's undergrad course). It felt strange having new students, having got so used to last year's. Maybe being at university now will be a life-changing, history-making experience for them - I hope so. For me, at 37, it feels more like another bit of the journey, rather than the be-all-and-end-all that I thought it would be when I was 18 and first went to uni. This is my 5th university course, so I guess I can be forgiven for being a bit less idealistic these days. Don't get me wrong - I'm still really grateful for the chance to study something I'm fascinated by and get paid for it. It's just that I think "making your mark" is as much a question of growing and journeying as it is big headline events and academic results.
The day's been much like many other weekdays. Travelling into uni by bus (cheaper, more direct, less stressful and less time consuming than the train, which would require more walking and a few changes, and more virtuous and cheap than driving, even though I do own a car), spending far too much time on the internet, eating reheated leftovers (I promise they were healthy though) and too much chocolate (which probably wasn't).
I'm thinking of starting a daily photo blog (there's a whole series of them from cities around the world). Since I had that idea a few weeks ago I've noticed so many quirky things about the city - I always liked it, but it's come even more alive now that I'm actively making the effort to notice stuff that's usually passed by. There's already a daily photo blog about my city, it'll be interesting to see how mine differs, how differently I perceive the same places, events, stories. I wonder if anyone will read my blog, or connect it to this random "one day in history" entry. Maybe I'll be the only one who knows, and that'll be a bit of history that was only meant to be for me.
For any PhD students studying this archive, years down the line, I hope you enjoy the experience. I bet amongst the dross there'll be some absolute gems.