DECADEnt

On the 14th of this month it was a whole ten year decade since I first bowled into Block 19 of the Richardson Road flats of Newcastle University; baggy jeans , Mos Def T-shirt and hi-fi in hand for accessories. A fresh-faced (i.e. spotty) 18 year old version of myself entered University, unsure where I was going or what I wanted to do. What would the 18 year old version of me make of me now?

To celebrate the anniversary of this landmark occasion, I ventured up to Birmingham for a mini-reunion with various members of different living scenarios over the four year period I spent in the North-East. (Birmingham being both a spot that featured an owned house where we could all stay and a conveniently neutral location for those venturing from Derbyshire, Leeds, London and Essex.)

Soon after arriving, it appeared that, though ten years had passed and ‘real’ life had begun, little had changed in this period. Despite all being in mid-to-long-term relationships (including an engagement) and having respectable jobs, conversation mainly revolved around toilet habits, masturbation and fighting. This was all very familiar of the years leading up to 2005.

Maybe it was everyone to recall happy times while a student; maybe it was the many years apart making everyone unable to know how else to act around each other; or maybe it’s just the fact that little has changed in the way we truly want to behave and we saw opportunity to re-enact the freedom University brings. Either way, we were far from the professionals that we supposedly are. Though neither were we near the disregard for tomorrow that was shown while students. Only 20% of us were sick. Tomorrow does come now. Though humourously the act of vomiting was performed in the car while driving home.

While little may have appeared to have changed, a lot has. While I still probably have no idea as to what I actually want to do with my life as I did then, I probably didn’t imagine the life I live now would be mine. The 18 year old, never employed me thought (stupidly) that getting a job was ‘selling out’ and that I would never work for ‘da man’. My socialist fantasies would definitely not have thought I would end up working in the private sector, especially not in the pharmaceutical industry. I would have much more pictured myself as an eternal student, or rapper, or DJ, or film director, or any other job that requires actual talent that I failed to possess.

Where I am now probably isn’t the ideal that I had when 18. I would have felt dirty as a beer-swilling, Senior Research Executive for a Pharmaceuticals Market Research agency then, I probably do to some extent now. From tee-total idealist to where I am now, who knows where I will be in another decade’s time. Award-winning novelist and film director, of course…