Reflections on 1 Year Post-Masters
As September comes to a close, it has been slightly more than one year since I have completed my masters at the end of August 2022. In that time, I have started a role at a small university and moved into a flat together with my partner. It feels like ages ago that I was a student. In many ways, I miss being a student and exploring academic concepts and speaking constantly to other students about political issues. There is of course also the enormous amount of free time as a student, which is much easier to appreciate in hindsight because of how restrictive a 9–5 job is in terms of free time. I can no longer simply pop into a museum at 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, at least not without taking annual leave. I would also say that working life is boring and unfulfilling. I go to work with the understanding that I am only there so that I can pay bills and rent. It is depressing that this monotonous grind is the promise of capitalism until eventually retiring in 40–50 years if you are lucky or if not then working until you drop. If you ever lose your job, then it is not a far cry from homelessness if you do not have savings or family or friend financial support.
I do enjoy speaking with colleagues, and commiserating about the shared injustices of the workplace, but it is, of course, obvious that if no one had bills to pay that no one would be working these monotonous jobs. While essays were strenuous to write at the time, they engaged me in a way that my work now simply cannot. I think it is also a consequence of the fact that I enjoy academia, and I enjoy having the kinds of discussions that take place as a student. I am very aware, though, particularly having now worked in university administration how much universities and academia are steeped in colonialism and white supremacy. Academia, like other sectors, also has enormous issues around casualisation of labour, gender and racial discrimination and harassment, and large pay gaps between the highest and lowest paid. The University and College Union (UCU) strikes in the past few years in the UK have highlighted these issues, although arguably they have not been very effective at addressing them. In the struggle for better pay and working conditions (although it is a very important struggle), what is often lost is that the entire purpose and structure of universities needs to be changed. What form this change takes and how it can take place remains to be seen, but it is clear that black, indigenous, queer and trans scholars are the ones best placed to lead this transformation.
Stepping away from academia for a moment, the past year has also had the change (which I mentioned earlier) of moving in with my partner. This has been by far the best change of the last year because it means that I get to spend more time with my wonderful partner who I am very much in love with. We have also been able to support each other through this transitionary time in terms of switching jobs because my partner has also started a job post-master’s degree. In that way, we are very much on the same page in terms of where we are in our lives and have made a lovely home together. I’ve also finally read a Toni Morrison novel, who is one of my partner’s favourite authors, and one of Morrison’s novels featured quite heavily in her master’s dissertation.
I think another transitionary part of leaving the masters was the fact that the masters had a set group of people within the course. We all had many socials and interactions both inside and outside the classroom. This group has become very dispersed. While I am still close friends with a couple people from the course, it very much feels as if that year was the time we had together as a cohort and now everyone has gone their separate ways. This time also marks more than two years since I have lived in London, which is hard to believe. It certainly has been different from Edinburgh, but overall, I have really liked living in London and seeing all it has to offer.
If I had to sum up this past year, I would say that it has been sad to have finished the masters and lost touch with a lot of the people from the course. Even though this is the case, I am still in touch with a couple people and do have friends that I see semi-regularly in London. I also miss being a student and having all the free time that students have (since I was privileged enough not to need to work alongside my studies). I have reached 10 months since starting my current role and looking to the future to hopefully progress in my career to something a bit more interesting and engaging. I have really loved spending time with my partner in our new flat, and we also took a trip just the two of us to Valencia earlier this year in March. I do not yet know what the next year will bring, but I’m excited to spend it with my partner and see where life takes us (potentially out of London if I cannot get a work visa before January 2025).
