Tuesday 10 July 2018

Swoop

Hi.

It's been a while, eh?

I'm swooping in to say hello and -- maybe -- goodbye.

How strange to reread my most recent post, from the 16th of October 2017. I had just started uni: English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. I'd not quite been there a fortnight. Now I've done my whole first year, read more books than I could have dreamed, found more wonderful friends than I dared hope, learned more about the Lord Jesus than I could have imagined. Written nearly two drafts of a novel (Stay in the City. Corrie's story continues, one familiar presence in my changing life). Co-led a Christian Union. Laughed a lot, cried a bit, fallen in love with a city.

Oxford skyline
[source] // My Oxford.
Drank a lot of tea.

Not blogged.

I have never before been busy the way I am busy in Oxford, and it feels like blogging never stood a chance. Finding time to write my novel is hard enough -- finding time to write about writing about my novel, or about the books I've been reading, seems impossible. And there's the ephemera of blogging, the photographs, the memes, the tags, the commenting back, which I found quite draining towards the end. Gosh, I'm talking like someone's died. But I suppose that, since October, I've vaguely viewed this blog as something I'll come back to one day, and now I'm coming to accept that perhaps I will not be back.

And that's really sad, and maybe, no, I don't want to make that decision!

So let's not call it a goodbye, but an au revoir. I'm swooping in now, and may well swoop in again. Because I miss you guys, and want to know: how are you doing?! What has 2018 served up for you? Do you think football might be coming home?

I am rereading Harry Potter.

I have also started on my uni work for October and am getting well into Renaissance poetic philosophy. You heard it here first ...

Soon, I am going to write the first draft of Some of the Trees (The City and the Trees #3).

Liana Jegers.
[source]

And look how easily I slip back into the ways of talking about myself in serif font, interspersed with pretty things from Pinterest! I miss blogging! Take me back??

[source]
Like many of my essays, I'm not sure this post is going to have much of a conclusion. Can you let a very irresponsible and inconsistent blogger back into your hearts? Should I start posting again? Anyway, update me, talk to me, I miss you. Here is a poem I've been loving recently, by the Scots Makar Jackie Kay.

from Bantam (Picador 2017), p. 6.

~***~

And with that, I swoop away.

13 comments:

  1. I've missed you Emily, but I understand. Blogging is incredibly time consuming, and I figured you would be busy. I hope this isn't good bye, even if it's only once in awhile. I love your posts!
    <3

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    Replies
    1. Skye, thank you so much for commenting! It means so much that you have missed me / remember me <333

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  2. Emily!!! Is that really you...?! Needless to say I've missed you ( and I'm certain I'm not the only one from all the comments on your previous post)
    I understand how time consuming college is and how blogging always gets put on the long finger. Oxford must be a whirlwind of busyness.
    And even though I am sad to see that you're not "really" back blogging, I am so relieved to see that you are actually alive. ( You had me very worried for a while! )

    Au Revoir x

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    Replies
    1. Marian! It is really me!!!!!! I have missed you, too, my friend! (One of my very original blog friends, don't you know? Inkspotterr ...)

      I am very much alive, fear not! Today I started writing my fourth novel. It's all still happening! Just not so much the blogging bit ...

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  3. Gosh darn it...

    Well, at least you've been enjoying yourself! (I'm Grace Osas, by the way) I hope you keep us posted on whatever you plan to publish at least! I'm glad you've been enjoying yourself. Personally, I've been struggling with actually blogging and such but every now and then I get pulled back in.

    Godspeed~

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Grace, I really have! Think publishing is still a very misty mountain down a very long road, but I will certainly let you know! Hope you're well, too <3

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  4. Emily! So good to hear from you again. I totally understand, uni can be so time consuming that sometimes blogging has to take a back seat. Whether or not you return, thanks for the memories and for the words <3

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  5. Dude what!!! I completely get that university has eaten up a whole great chunk of your time, but we missss youuuu. Literally, come back forever thanks. This feels like a breakup. Should this feel like a breakup? Am I okay?

    Anyway, I hope that you have a glorious Summer, (and then come back to blogging) and continue to take care of yourself. I hope you find more time for the things you love (such as... blogging).

    We all love you, read more from you soon <3

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  6. Of course, we would all read if you kept posting. XD But do what's best for you. If it'd run you ragged to dash about Oxford and read 539,002 books and keep up a regularly posting schedule, well, something's got to give. We do miss you though. (Not that I have room to talk as I've mostly disappeared as well, but hopefully I'll change that soon.)

    That poem is great!

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  7. Welcome back, if only for a moment. I’m glad to hear that Oxford is treating you well. I’ve learned just a tiny bit about Renaissance poetic theory this summer. I might learn a little bit more next semester when we read King Lear and some of Paradise Lost in my Survey of English Lit I course. How do you like having such a focused plate of study at Uni? I’m at an American university, so my education is much broader (if I understand Oxford’s program properly), but I like it that way. And I never would’ve gone into school wishing to study literature, even though I might end up getting my PhD in English or Comparative Literature some years down the line (God willing). What have been your favorite works to read so far?

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  8. What a treat to see this post! You have been missed!
    I was recently thinking about LesMisBook, and I remembered how updates of the story would be posted shortly after I thought about them- like magic.
    But I can understand the busyness. University is known for such things.
    I've been busy myself. The cousins came over from Wales. The crops ripened early this summer. I attended a writer's conference for the first time. And I haven't yet made that felted mouse someone commissioned (shame!)
    I'm glad to hear you're enjoying yourself at Oxford. Wish I could join you.

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  9. Welcome back if only for now. We've really missed you and I hope you'll be back some day. I'm glad college is going well for you.

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  10. How were you saved
    by Almighty God's grace?
    X-plane, dear...

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Thanks for commenting! :)