My week began with very little expectation. I continued to go to archery fitness and prepare for the two tutorials that I had. I planned with the expectation that I wouldn't get much done this weekend with another two tournament weekend ahead of me in the form of Varsity (against and at Cambridge) and BUTTS league Outdoors (at Loughborough). On that Monday, I spent most of my time preparing for my first RPG society game as a gm. This meant plenty of writing and reading and getting briefed on various bits of plots that the characters and GMs had planned. I enjoyed every second of it, favouring it to any other work (besides archery). It has been awhile since I was able to flex those creative writing muscles that up until university had been quite well exercised. It was a reminder of that aspect of my life that had once been so important to me that I had since abandoned due to time. That evening was fitness and given that varsity was at the end of the week, I went early to do extra shooting and the fitness itself was quite brutal. I danced along the edge of passing out more than once and one of my fellow archers had to go to the A&E (ER) for heat stroke. That being said, I do kind of enjoy pushing my limits and was proud of my ability to gauge myself and listen to my body, making sure not to cross the point of no return.
My Tuesday was all about preparation. I completed in a rush the last minute details for turn sheets for RPG and also wrote the essay for my Thursday tutorial. I managed my time well and was reminded what being truly busy was. It was fantastic. That little part of me that remained unfulfilled these previous weeks was very much fulfilled. That evening I had a blast trying on various hats (both literally and figuratively) as I played various non-player characters (NPCs) throughout the game. There was plenty of drama and intrigue and I found that I enjoyed playing multiple characters for a short time than the one character for the full time. It gave me an excuse to interact with more of the player base and train my acting skills. It also served to prepare me for the bumps and unexpected problems that come with being a GM, which I think as a team we handled with grace, such as the players will never know (unless of course they read this blog or we tell them later). I relished getting a chance to get closer to this community which I felt I had neglect a little first and second term. It is a wonderful feeling, belonging. Safe to say that I was fairly exhausted by the end and well and truly crashed that evening into late in the morning.
Wednesday was a day of equal parts accomplishment and joy. I had not too much to do and instead opted for a relatively slow pace. I decided that I wanted to go to archery and I slowly anticipated the next phase of the GM cycle which was hundreds of emails an hour (turned out to be a relatively quiet week this week). Shooting was a lot of fun and I returned home feeling like it was time well spent. It was then that I went through my daily ritual of checking in on my youtube subscriptions. One of my favourite shows is the PBS idea channel in which the host discuses media and pop culture in various philosophical contexts. It is quite entertaining and one of the main parts that I love is the end of the video in which they answer and discuss comments to the previous video that added to the conversation. I have commented on various videos as I felt I had something to contribute, but never had I been featured. This was unsurprising as there are 525,000 fellow subscribers and comments from youtube, subredit, IRC, twitter ect. They had just uploaded their hundredth video and as always I enjoyed listening to their self-analysing of the PBS idea channel in commemoration. What made this episode extra special, is that when they reach the comments from the previous episode, an episode discussing Orphan Black and the philosophical idea of Simulacrum present in the show, the host read my name and referred to one of my comments. (To watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAWKD6OXGnA) Seeing my face (google account photo) and my comment appear on the video and hearing the host say my name was an amazing experience and I felt considerable pride at being referenced and contributing to the conversation. Safe to say that my evening ended with plenty of joy and pride.
Thursday was a day of more training and also my final tutorial in infectious diseases. My tutorial went extremely well and I very much enjoyed speaking with my tutor about the nature of human's and disease and the way that humans shape the causes of an epidemic. It was bitter sweet in a sense as I really enjoyed the tutorial more than I expected and particularly enjoyed getting to know my tutor, Dr. Emma Coleman-Jones. She wished me well with plans to keep in touch. It was a shame that I had so few tutorials with her this term. That being said, the final tutorial was designed to draw in all of the topics we had discussed this term and some of last term and I couldn't really have asked for much more from her. That evening I shot at archery, finalizing my sight marks and practising the round for the two competitions which was a Windsor, 9 dozen ends total with 3 dozen at 60, 50 and 40yds each with 5 number scoring (gold=9, red=7, blue=5, black= 3, and white=1). Not entirely happy with how I shot during practice, I anticipated a better score the coming weekend.
Friday was all about RPG society again. I had a tutorial with my economics of developing nations tutor as well and that turned out better than I expected. I had a meeting with my fellow GMs that evening that would last a good 6 hours going through character actions and determining the appropriate outcomes. It was tons of fun and once again I enjoyed getting to know everyone involved. So far, my road as a GM has been fairly successful with only a few minor speed bumps along the way. However, I'm prepared to learn and am extremely self-aware as I try to learn the best ways to fit into this game half way through. It is loads of fun and that really does help get through the bulk of it. Knowing that I would have a busy weekend, I tried to get as much sleep as possible. It turned out that I was going to need it.
Saturday was varsity and we left at half past 8 in the morning. The Varsity match consisting of at most 8 experienced archers and 8 novice archers was held at Cambridge this year. It is the annual match between Oxford and Cambridge and as you can guess there is plenty of rivalry. The shoot was just outside St. John's college and it was picturesque. The weather called for rain, but throughout the shoot is was only mildly true and much nicer than NEUAL and the 1440 had been. I struggled at first in the match, not shooting very well for the first distance, but picked it up for the following two distances. The whole time I was in fierce competition with Sarah, who has grown considerably as a fellow female novice. In the end, I shot brilliantly for a female novice, breaking the club record by 70 points and taking first overall. Our Novice team creamed Cambridge's novice team by a good 300 points scoring a combined 2794¬8 which is very impressive. The experienced team likewise won overall with two of our experienced archers making club records of their own. We won in a land slide and the whole day was plenty of fun. The Novice team won the silver plate plaque (for another year) and the Experienced team won the rose bowl (for another year). It had lions on it and of course Sara and I had to take pictures. Additionally there were two bottles of Proseco and since I got the highest novice score, I got to be the one to pop the bottle. There were no individual metals but overall there was a lot of pride in breaking new records and winning as a team. We didn't get back until just before midnight and needed to be up and ready by 6am the next morning.
I got about 5 hours of sleep and was extremely tired the next day. I tried to compensate with caffeine and remained confident that I could outdo my shooting from the previous day. BUTTS in Loughborough was a completely different type of day. While there was some projected rain, which never occurred, it was largely sunny and hot with plenty of gusty wind. Now, rain is actually not that bad for archery. It makes the bow and arrows heavier which makes the arrows not fly as far, but it is a reasonably easy fix. Sporadic wind that blows in all different directions, however, doesn't make for very good shooting. Despite all of these things, my first 3 dozen arrows went better than the day before. I was winning the Novice lady category and as a team of 3 rather than 4, our novice team was in a solid 2nd place (ridiculous considering we had one less person that pretty much all the other teams). Then we stopped for lunch and I crashed. I began to feel vaguely dizzy and it became very difficult to concentrate. This only served to frustrate me as I really had been shooting well up to this point. The next couple of dozen were a battle of will and mental power, but this was the point when the wind picked up in random. I didn't have the mental fortitude to combat the wind and as a result I quickly began to drop points. Sarah got very close to my score and third place was quickly rising in the ranks. By the end of the second distance, I was winning by a very tiny margin. This is the point when fatigue set in and at this point, I could do nothing but watch my lead dwindle away to nothing. I was a bit devastated and scored 22 points below the score from the previous day (still would have broken the club record and still a respectable score). As a result, I lost first by between 5-15 points. While I recognize that I have plenty of valid excuses, I still felt a bit like I let my team down. Conditions are never going to be perfect and it is my job to shoot well despite the conditions. It makes me want to train harder and become better, faster, and stronger! Our ranking in the novice team also dropped, but this was to be expected given the higher number of arrows shot, but we still managed to take 4th place overall and only lost by a 400 point margin from the 1st place team. This of course means that we could have had just about any of the other novices and would have won. The experienced squad won and Sarah and I took third and second place respectively. Jack also took 2nd place in the novice gents demonstrating that our novice squad is pretty beast. I just have to keep fighting and proving my worth. Despite all of this, of course, I am a bit proud. It is still a victory and our team celebrated along with the rest of BUTTS league with cook outs on the lawn. It was delicious and only further served to bond me to my team and the wonderful archery community that I have come to know and love here at Oxford. We arrived back in Oxford around 10pm finishing off a ridiculously busy weekend of shooting.
This week has been full of various victories, whether they be mental, social or physical. I have felt challenged and for the most part, I have met these challenges head on. I look forward to future archery competitions where I can continue to improve and show that I am one of the best novice lady recurves (allow me a little pride here). I have had so much fun and as I reflect on my dwindling time here in Oxford, I can't help but feel a deep endless sadness. These communities, RPGsoc and archery, have accepted me wholly and completely and I have accepted them. To lose such communities and to return to a community to which I do not have nearly the same love and compassion, is going to be one of the hardest things I have had to do so far in my life. It is so hard to capture happiness and I truly have found mine in my life here in Oxford. I do not look forward to starting from nearly square one next year. However, it doesn't do me good to dwell in the past or the future, but instead must cherish this time I have left. Tomorrow, I write up many many turn sheets and prepare for another week of RPG society and archery. Allow me this indulgence and all my time here will have been worth it.
Until Next time,
Adventures Await!
KH
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