What Hannah Did Next

So yeah, I graduated.

I'm aware I've not said an awful lot about the ceremony. Well, there ended up not being a hell of a lot to say about it, frankly. I got a tap on the head with a velour 'cap' and a hood-that-wasn't-actually-a-hood put around my neck. This apparently now makes me a Graduate. The reception wasn't up to much if I'm honest, considering I and a number of my other peers paid an extra £15 to graduate in person. There were no post-ceremony nibbles, only two drinks options - apple juice and Buck's Fizz (the latter of which I swear contained orange squash - WTF?!), and I ended up spending it milling about looking for folk. I'm sad I didn't get to speak to everyone :( It improved later though, with the food.

Apart from that, I've just been working. Being in yet another customer service job has rekindled my hatred for the general public. That said, it's one of the best jobs I've had in terms of the people I work with, and I like not having to think about when my next essay's due in, and not having to analyse the book I'm reading that week (at the time of writing this, it's 'Screen Burn' by Charlie Brooker, to be followed by 'Midnight's Children' by Salman Rushdie. Who says my tastes aren't eclectic?). I imagine there's probably a few disgruntled folk from back home utterly scandalised that I don't want to return and get a graduate placement with the council. Frankly, if I'm honest, I'd hate that. I think about the only relevance it would bear to my future career would be possible office experience. Not to mention, most folk who take those placements tend to get sucked in to staying there permanently - again, I'd hate that. Seriously, those people could pay me in books and I still wouldn't work for them.

On another note, I haven't done much writing since becoming employed. I need to get my finger out. I was working on another short story that I got genuinely excited about (odd that, I've been trying to save my excitement for a new novel plan) but the new job just got in the way, like it does. I'm away out for a friend's 21st tonight, but tomorrow, in between trying to do more reading, I'll work more on that story, then redraft it, then try and show it to everyone else I know in the hope of some constructive criticism. Maybe I could get my colleagues at the publisher to look at it...:)