Photo by David Köhler on Unsplash
First thoughts
I can’t believe it’s been almost 3 years since my last post here.
I must have been writing it from Viterbo, just about to move to Rome. What happened in the meantime? I feel like almost nothing has changed and everything has changed at the same time.
I really grabbed life after COVID restrictions started to lift. I think if you told January-2021-Catriona about what happens in the next 3 years, she would have been quite surprised. The biggest shocks would probably be: working in Lyon for a short time, getting a cat, going to Egypt/Jordan/Saudi Arabia, going to Uganda twice in 6 months, and moving to Venice (!!)
In the meantime, I hope to take it easy. Ish.
Some observations on life now.
Venice, Lido Island, Autumn 2023.
Studying at the Global Campus of Human Rights.
Currently, most of my day to day consists of being surrounded by Gen Z girls (women).
The age range on my course goes from 21 to around 40, although I would say most are around 22-27. At 31, I am one of the older ones.
The course is almost all women too: 86 (?) students in total, and of that, about 10 are guys.
It’s strange. When COVID started, I was 27, and sometimes my brain still thinks I am 27, while at the same time I also feel really comfortable and proud of being in my thirties.
I do that thing that you do, when you think back to who you were at that time (aged 21, 22, 23), what were you doing at that time, and even who would you have hung out with in this context but at that age.
Aged 20, I lived and spent time with someone who had gone back to study a masters at 34. I was obsessed with telling people her age because I couldn’t quite believe it myself. She looked young, seemed so youthful, smoked weed and went out with us, while also being very independent too. I guess I had never seen what a 34 year old woman looked like outside of a context of being a mum. I still thought: well obviously that won’t be me though - without even consciously actually thinking that because I never really ever considered a world where I would be 34. If that makes sense? They do say your brain isn’t fully formed yet in your early twenties…
I guess I should be a little more patient with them. They have also suffered COVID in a different way. (We almost never talk about it anymore?) Most of them never experienced a ‘normal’ university life if they started uni in 2020 or 2019.
It is so strange to see the girls dressed in a way that is a cross between Rachel from Friends, and the way that the ‘cool young mums’ of my friends would dress when I was growing up. Some look like posh spice and some look like groovy chick. It’s been particularly strange to see brown leather trousers, long crocodile trench coats, fluffy bags, tie dye tops, and low rise jeans. I am sure I am getting it all wrong clothes-wise. It feels rather sad to have the sneaking suspicion that I am dressed in a way that is just exactly ‘off’.
I have been told that my emoji use is very “random”, and I realise I may be to them what boomers and grannies on Facebook are to me. One girl at the beginning of the course told me she doesn’t even know how to use Facebook…
Uni has changed too. I remember in 2011 I was still using a physical paper notepad mostly, sometimes bringing my old red Dell laptop. I was jealous of the MacBooks. But here so many students use iPads with an Apple pen to read the readings and take notes in a variety of colours. They are using Notion and Chat GPT to support their learning.
I suppose this is an incredibly boring post. Essentially: “person 10 years older than the others notices differences.” “Person who goes back to study years later finds time has moved on.”
But time, sociology/people/society, and the way fashion works - will never cease to amaze me.
Next time will be some little reviews of things I’ve liked recently, including: Baccala Mantecato, Venice Architecture Biennale, and Venice Film Biennale (Tatami, Green Border)…
In the meantime, I will be setting up my (pink) Christmas tree early this year.
Until the next time,
C.