003: New year, new beginnings

On traveling home for the holidays & New Year's resolutions.

Welcome back to Knovel! If you’re new, you can catch up on the last edition here. I realize that it’s been exactly 2 months since I last published, but they do say better late than never.

We’re nearly halfway through Epiphany term here in Durham. Unlike American colleges, most UK universities operate on a term system, with 3 terms a year. Somewhat amusingly, Durham (like other old institutions) has seen fit to name them: Michaelmas, Epiphany, and Easter.

Heading home for the holidays

I was lucky enough to be able to go home for the winter holidays. However, the journeys (both to the US and the return trip) were unusual, to say the least.

My friends and I booked the same train to London on December 11. It was my first time taking a train in England, and apparently, it was not at all representative of the typical experience.

I guessed as much, since I rather doubted that the police usually stopped and boarded trains, causing more than an hour-long delay.

Long story short, a large group of people on our train had neglected to purchase tickets. They also seemed bent on making the train journey as uncomfortable as possible for everyone on board — sitting on our table, vaping, and harassing the staff.

A man, one of many who hadn’t bought a ticket, is escorted off the train by police. The train was stopped at Peterborough, the last stop before London, for over an hour.

It got to the point where the authorities were forced to get involved. When the train pulled into Peterborough Station, the police were waiting on the platform. They boarded the train, and for the next hour the train operators and police checked every single passenger’s ticket. Anyone who didn’t have one (i.e. the majority of our carriage) was escorted off the train; some particularly resistant ones were even handcuffed.

Eventually, we made it to London. I had never been to the city before (unless you counted a 3-hour connection in Heathrow, which I didn’t). Veronica and her family were kind enough to let me stay at their house, and I got to meet her wonderful parents and younger siblings.

I’ll likely write a separate issue on those few days in London, but for now I’ll just say that I greatly enjoyed it, include a picture, and move on.

Fortnum & Mason (a very fancy, and very English) department store was decorated for the holidays.

The return journey

The flight back to London (from Newark) was hardly any better. A word of advice — if you intend on packing anything that resembles pills in your carry-on, factor in more time for security. I made the mistake of purchasing 3 Costco-sized containers of vitamin supplements to bring with me to England (to make up for the lack of sunlight).

Needless to say, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised when my suitcase was redirected for further investigation. The TSA officer ran his scanner over the surface of each container of vitamins, presumably testing for drugs. While going through my suitcase, he stumbled upon my Asian sunflower seed packs. He eyed them suspiciously, then scanned them too (for good measure).

It took a little while, but I finally made it through security. I found a seat near the gate and quickly busied myself with my preferred airport pastime — people-watching.

I had an hour to kill, an hour that soon turned into two, then three as the flight was continuously delayed. To make matters worse, there was a winter storm forecasted to hit overnight, and takeoff was inching closer and closer to when the snow was due to start.

Finally, we boarded the plane, and after one last minor delay (one of the overhead bins refused to shut, which apparently posed a safety issue), we were off.

The rest of the journey was relatively smooth — I took the Tube from Heathrow to King’s Cross, where I caught my train to Durham. I’m happy to report that my second English train journey was a lot more peaceful, and punctual, than my first.

Samara offered to pick me up from the train station in Durham, and before I knew it, I was back in my room. It only took a few days for it to feel like I’d never left.

New Year’s resolutions

With the New Year comes, for many of us, a new list of New Year’s resolutions. Personally, I’m focusing on 4 main ones in 2022:

1. Stop getting in the way

Nathaniel Drew (one of my favorite creators on YouTube) talked about this in a recent video of his. In short, once you recognize your potential, your job is simple: don’t get in the way. I find it helpful to approach everything as though it were a first draft. Perfectionism might make us think otherwise, but most of the time, good enough is good enough.

2. You’re a good student; start acting like one.

Over the summer, when I was working full-time, I found myself longing to return to academia. Since coming to university, however, I’ve struggled a bit to maintain that spark. I’m studying 3 subjects (philosophy, politics & economics) that I find fascinating, so I’ve resolved to be fascinated.

To attend lectures live, to do the readings and take notes on things that interest me. To dive down the rabbit hole of research, if only to sate my curiosity. I’ve learned that there’s nothing more precious.

3. Invest time in reading.

Last year, I easily surpassed my goal of reading 21 books in 2021 — I ended up finishing 31. In 2022, I’m hoping to read 35 books. I’m starting the year off with Galileo’s Error, which I came across serendipitously in the St. John’s library.

Incidentally, the author, Philip Goff, is a philosophy professor at Durham. I’m now more than 200 pages in, and I’m strongly considering taking his module (Philosophy of Mind) next year.

4. Cultivate Knovel’s growth.

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t written nearly as regularly as I initially intended. I hope to do better this year, and part of that (related to my first resolution above) involves making a change. Knowing my own habits, I suspect that a pivot from a weekly commitment to a looser, ‘when inspiration strikes’ approach will (somewhat counterintuitively) result in more frequent posts. And that is exactly what I’ll do.

There’s a funny post-January phenomenon I’ve noticed, where people collectively decide to forget about their New Year’s resolutions. In an effort to avoid this, I’m sharing them with you. If you’re willing, I invite you to reply and do the same. What do you hope to change in 2022? How do you plan to do it?

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Thanks for reading this far, and I’ll be back in your inbox with the next issue soon! As always, a reply (even just to say how you’re doing) is always appreciated.

Hope to hear from you!
Kaylyn

P.S. Do you remember those 3 essays I mentioned back in December? Well, I got them done in the end (albeit very, very close to the deadline), and I’m quite pleased with the feedback I got!

P.P.S. I re-joined the team at On Deck 2 weeks ago! I started interning with them in February 2021 (nearly a year ago), and after taking a few months off to settle into uni, I found that I really missed it.