Prologue to the Fourth Year: Back To Firsts (~jinghan)

Note from the author: I heard a rumour that my incessant blogging was making other bloggers feel guilty whenever they logged on to check out the blog… hm, I think the tables have turned. I’ll come up with the perfect excuse later… but for now I may as well start blogging. 

One of the lights in the train is broken, a bit dimmer than the others. I wouldn’t have noticed except that it’s dark outside and I didn’t even leave uni all that late.

To think that I had been pining for Summer what seems like just a few months ago… but now that autumn seems to be showing her face there’s something comforting about the quiet lighted atmosphere of the train passing through the darkness. When the train rolls to a stop at my station I step out and the air seems to have an ambivalent feeling about whether it wants to dwell on those warm Summer nights or delight in those crisp winter evenings. In my t-shirt and scarf I feel like I agree.

As I wait for the crossing lights to change the brightness of the headlights, the street lamps and the shop fronts seem to almost have a magical quality. Unlike the daytime the sounds are sharper more rhythmic. And as I walk up the street the air is filled with smells fainty of summery night flowers and wintery warm things from people’s homes. As I walk up the driveway. The sky is blue, deep indigo above my head and soft azure at the horizon. The first stars turn on their lights from the other side of the cosmic window.

I’m sure that in the weeks and months to come this walk up the street will become monotonous, just another part of the tiring end to the day. I have assignments due, lecture notes that made no sense begging attention, emails in disarray… but for what seems like the first time since I started my Masters** , since all the hectic orientation, subject selection, new tutor induction, project research… the beauty of the world around me surmounts all other worries and thoughts.

I’ll admit that I thought about blogging once or twice in the past few month. But it took a beautiful autumn evening to get me the actual point of doing it. There’s lots of things going on and changing in my life that I want to tell you about: for one thing, I’m a first year again. It’s different to the first first year… But I’ll tell you about that later, for now I think sharing this autumn evening with you is enough.

Take care~

Jinghan

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* Masters of Science (mathematics and statistics) is what it says on the papers.