Features – Page 25 of 26

Advice for Freshers they won’t tell you in the Welcome Pack

15Sep

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Features

Advice for Freshers they won’t tell you in the Welcome Pack

Here you are. A bright-eyed young student, arriving for your first day of Freshers at Royal Holloway. When you get to your Halls, you'll get given lots of information and bits of paper (which you'll most probably lose - I did). One of these is the Welcome Pack. However, the university only tell you the things they want you to know in the Welcome Pack. Here's the unofficial advice guide to Freshers courtesy of yours truly, The Orbital. Ps - make sure you enter our Golden Ticket competition to win FREE entry to Freshers events during Welcome Week. 1. Buy a toastie maker for a range of midnight snacks and friends will love you 2. Grow your beard out full length then shave it half way through the year so you fool others into believing you’re a post-grad 3. Ask for a sip of strongbow...

18Aug

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Features

‘You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone’ – or do you?

The old classic: “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” is thrown around a lot. It’s one of those bittersweet feelings in life, where retrospection is simultaneously your best friend and your worst nightmare. With my time at Holloway now drawing to a close on the eve of my last exam (why I’m writing an article and not revising God only knows), my thoughts are populated more than I’d like by this notion. This is hardly a new thought for me though, especially as I spend the majority of my time wrapped up in a process of overthinking that would make Hawking proud. Yet at this point of life, for the first time I also feel like I have the clarity to look back into the past and into the future too. I mean after all the purpose of University is to prepare us for life, as a psychology...

18Aug

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Features

The Reformed Student?

The summer. A time of being exam free, where lying down all day in the sun and drinking a cider at 11am seems perfectly acceptable and where short-shorts make their repeated dreaded appearance. Either way, it is meant to be our time to relax. Well, that’s wrong… and I shall explain why. Having recently taken up a two week internship slot to work with Poet in the City, a charitable organisation that seek to bring new audiences to poetry events across London, I’ve suddenly seen the light in terms of using my spare time to get whatever experience I can for the future. Gone are my days of staying in bed until beyond midday, I am rid of the times when wearing my pyjamas all day was a reasonable response to rainy weather. I am now an early-bird riser on their laptop throughout the day look...

18Aug

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Features

The Meaning of News

All day, every day, our lives are permeated by facts and knowledge of others than ourselves. We spend hours of our time checking Twitter and Facebook, updating, liking and reading about other people’s lives. But how much of what actually matters do we absorb? How many young people prefer to spend their time online checking up on celebrities and football, on films and music, and yet barely notice anything of significance that appears on their feed. I am not saying that as young people we should be disregarding these things which make essential elements of our culture, but surely there should be a more even balance? I feel that many of my peers care too little about what is happening in the wider world, as they remain ignorant towards the world around them. Occasionally, events can filter...

18Aug

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My Advice to Freshers? Be a Snob.

A-Levels well and truly in the past, exam certificates already lining the bottom of your wardrobe, you’ve made it to one of the top universities in the country. Congratulations. You’re young, intelligent – the cream of the crop – and you can do anything, right? Well, so they tell you anyway. We’re bred on the American Dream (yes, even here in good old Blighty), which proclaims that you can achieve, you will succeed, and that it’s your right and privilege to do so. But the problem is, it isn't that easy; success – as a serial failure, I can attest to this fact – is not glamorous and takes a lot of effort (more even than those glossy film montages would have you believe, as inconceivable as that is) and yet few of us are held to the standard required to go on to great things by those around ...

27Feb

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SURHUL Elections 2014

The nominations for the annual SURHUL elections are now open until March 7th. Although you may be preparing to dodge the flood of campaign teams lobbying outside Windsor building as you skate to your next lecture, or getting ready to brush off the hundreds of campaign leaflets that are about to clog up your bag - I ask whether if it has ever crossed your mind to take part in these elections? With the whole campus entrusted to elect, four Sabbatical Officers, Student Trustees, the entire Executive Committee and the heads of the student media organisations: The Orbital, Insanity Radio, and RhubarbTV – the Students' Union are urging Royal Holloway students to consider running in the 2014 elections. Elections are key to ensuring the student voice is heard within the University and the Studen...

27Feb

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Features

LGBT History Month

As March is fast approaching and bringing about Women's History Month, it feels right to take a look back LGBT History Month, which occurs in every February in the United Kingdom. Although there are many arguments against minority history months, such as the belief that they serve as a reminder of difference and maintain lines of segregation within historical thinking, such minority history months have many benefits and teach us a lot about groups that we may or may not identify with. LGBT History Month was kick-started in the UK by Sue Sanders and the charity ‘Schools Out' back in 2005. The Metropolitan Police Services and the Crown Prosecution Service, as well as Amnesty International, are essential in developing the sustainability of this month. February was chosen as it was considered...

27Feb

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Features

Spoken Word: Much More Than Words

Amongst the numerous art forms that exist within the creative world, spoken word is without a doubt one of the most thought provoking types of art. So what is spoken word? This particular talent revolves around the poet's articulate delivery of words on a specific topic which is usually presented in the style of storytelling. Its success is dependent on the poet's lyrical fluency and expression conveyed within a single performance. The poet aims to captivate his/her listeners and generally seeks to challenge and inspire the audience to see the world through their eyes. You may be surprised to know that spoken word is not a new form of art; it has existed throughout history. Ancient Greeks would include spoken word poetry during their Olympic games as a way of making political and social c...

27Feb

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Lost In Translation: ‘Just a small town girl living in a southern world’

For the ‘minority', living in Surrey can seem disparate, bewildering and alien. Particularly at Royal Holloway where the Southern supremacist reigns, one can feel anomalous, isolated and misunderstood. I am of course referring to that special (and quite frankly friendlier) category of homo-sapiens that is the humble Northerner. It has become commonplace to be introduced in the manner of “this is Chloë, she's Northern” as though my geographical habitation is my ‘fun fact' to allow people to get to know me. Having spent all my life living in the North West (although knowing that such thing as ‘the south' existed), being launched into a comparatively subterranean world can take some adjusting. Thus, it is not unusual, having said something, to be greeted by a blank face with shifting eyes to...

27Feb

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Features

Student Poetry!

The Poets of Royal Holloway Late. The moon in its seven haloes, sugar-crust and frosting on ponds. The gong for one, two into the unbroken day. * The hooting trains in dells where owls hold parliament. * Or slow. Dregging the pond at midnight in green mermaid hair, a suckling thought pressed to your breast. * Scorched toast and no milk, but there is always someone willing to share the tear and wear of a favourite pair of socks. * The blue of the low-lying sun on brick dust like blusher on the brow of the hill. * Even more than the monochrome screech - One for sorrow – of brylcreem magpies - Two for joy – * And a hint of a glint in the uppermost turret a kind hand feeds the tits and finches, rears early irises by runways and runaway time. * Something with lime and...