University Student

Nadia Maran

Description

It's September and the university halls are buzzing with fresh faces and excitement for the year ahead. Not for Melina Xydakis, new to Scotland, new to the university, and new to the situation of being a child of divorce. For the past three years in Greece, Melina has had to watch her parents struggle to save their marriage. Now she's here for a fresh start, though the prospect of dealing with the unfamiliar university environment and finding new friends fills her with dread. She decides to focus her nerves in a diary, filling the pages with her experiences. An extrovert she is not. Not like Miranda, the beautiful and lively girl she meets in the same residence hall, or Liz, her next-door neighbour who iswild and outspoken. Nor too like Sean. For Melina, there is nobody like Sean, whom she notices in the first few days ofterm. And although Sean and Miranda get together, Melina's romantic heart yearns for him to notice her, even whenMiranda warns her his light surface hides dark depths. As those closest to her play out their own dramas, except forKevin, a new friend, who remains steadfast through it all, Melina is consumed with finding out Sean's secret. But will itruin everything?

Sujets

• Escocia
• Scotland

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781838598280
• Langue: English

Extrait

Copyright © 2020 Nadia Maran

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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To my father
Contents
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3

PART 1
DAY 1 (Saturday, third Saturday of September)
This is not how I imagined my first day at university. I always thought of university life as endless fun, apart from the few hours spent studying or in the classroom. But, judging from the first day, endless fun it is not. I did what was required of me in the morning: attended orientation, filled the forms, picked up my keys and even bought a few supplies for my first class next week. Now I find myself in a room (as plain as they get) and the only form of communication I want to engage in is this writing. I hear the noise outside, people laughing, screaming (some of them seem to have known each other forever), keys turning, doors opening and closing. Do I want to be part of this? I read in this article that 20% of university students fail to make any friends during their studies. I remember thinking that my picture could have been a nice visual for that article, a prospective isolate in the university cosmos of joyful extroverts.
It is perhaps the last three years of my life, spent in Greece with my family, that have contributed to this distance I feel from people and places in Scotland. It is a feeling I have had ever since I came back home with my mum and my brother. I think I am old enough to cope with the separation factor, I have known for a long time that things were not great between my parents and that the move to Greece was the last attempt at keeping us together. I love my dad, even though as I grew older I increasingly became critical of him, at least more so than of my mum. He always seemed to be unhappy with things as they were (his job in Scotland, life in Scotland, later his job in Greece, life in Greece) and had no suggestions on how to improve things apart from a vision of radical systemic and social change that everyone else knew was not about to happen in the not-so-distant future. I suspect my mum was equally unhappy about the same things, the difference being that she would not impose analyses of the present and visions of the future on anyone other than herself.
I think back to the time I left Edinburgh for Athens. I remember how upset I was at the time. I was almost fifteen and I had just managed to settle into a few relationships that I could call real friendships. And suddenly I had to give it all up for a project as impossible as they get, the prospect of my parents living happily ever after in Athens. I think the sun and the sea were expected to have such a hugely positive effect on the relationship that the move was justified in my parents’ minds. I blame my mum more for this: as a sociology professor she should have known better than investing in the sunshine.
Still, Greece was a good experience for everyone in the family other than my parents. I found that change can be good and that the sun and the sea can make you feel better. Many of my classmates at the English secondary school were non-native speakers of English, which made me very popular. This I enjoyed as it was the first time in my life where I did not have to work at becoming popular; my knowledge of a language made it happen.
Here things are different. Even though I have always felt more British than Greek despite my dad’s genes and my somewhat darker looks, this country seems cold and unwelcoming to one of its long-lost children.
DAY 2 (Sunday)
I had my first breakfast at the hall today, an intense and frightening experience. How is it possible not to know anyone here? I lived in this country for thirteen years! I suspect that my mum’s choice of Glasgow for my studies was based on simple geography despite her frequent references to the ‘quality’ factor. My knowledge of her personality suggests the following two decision-making criteria:

a. The exclusion of her university (Edinburgh) from my list. Being a liberal, she would never have it that her daughter studied at the same university she was teaching at. That would not give me sufficient independence and space to grow.
b. A distance between the two universities that could be covered in a short drive. Independence may be desirable but a few unexpected visits will ensure that I am ‘growing’ in the right direction.

Back to breakfast, painful though it may be. Breakfast at residence halls is never about the food. It is about belonging and today I did not belong. At this point I did not want to belong as I was trying to adjust to my surroundings before embarking on the dubious pleasure of meeting new people. I thus made sure I avoided eye contact with those around me while queuing for breakfast. This continued after I picked up my food tray. To make sure that I would avoid any conversation, I chose a seat that was as far away as possible from the crowds. (I would have liked a table to myself but, as this was not possible, I settled for a four-seat gap.) I proceeded to have the fastest breakfast recorded in the history of mankind and, despite still being hungry, I rushed back to my room, avoiding eye contact. At least I had the satisfaction of knowing that my avoidance strategy had worked for the day. The only thing that did not go as planned was the fact that I was asked to hand the salt to this distant neighbour at the table. (The four-seat gap was not sufficient to avert this.) As he was both good-looking and polite, I did not mind.
As if this were not bad enough, it is the first day of classes tomorrow. There are times I wish I were back in Greece, where life (even though I did not know it then) was certainly simpler.
DAY 3 (Monday)
It is now 9 p.m., a time that finds me alone in my room looking at today’s notes. This was actually a good day as I managed to do two things of which I am proud: first, I attended my first class and I found it extremely easy to follow. This should not have come as a surprise as I have always been a very good (some would say excellent) student. Still, one thinks of the university as a ‘higher’ place, where the things to be learned are no longer accessible to ordinary minds. I can now call this a misconception, hoping, of course, that other classes prove to be equally accessible. Second, I met a fellow student. (Unbelievable though it may seem, it did actually happen!) She was sitting next to me in class and, despite my eye-contact avoidance strategy of the last few days, I actually remembered her from the hall.
Emma appears to be a joyful and friendly person, which is perfect for me in that she can help me meet others, making her something of an indirect path to socialisation. She went to school very close to Glasgow and has many classmates who also attend our university. I always make up my mind about people the first time I meet them. There is something about people’s expressions and manners, not so much what they tell you but how they look at you and move around you. Emma seems to be the straightforward ‘let us all be happy’ type, a type that I have learned to value over the years as no member of my family has ever produced behaviour remotely similar to it. I also find her looks pleasantly average. (I have nothing against good-looking people, especially men, but I would not like all my female friends to be stunning, gorgeous creatures.)
Having met Emma in the morning, I managed to secure myself company for dinner. No more lonely dinners, I thought to myself as I sat at the table (not bad for Day 3). I met her friends Nathan and Miranda. Miranda is her next-door neighbour in the hall and Nathan went to school with her. Miranda is as stunning as they get, and yet remarkably down-to-earth for a blonde, blue-eyed goddess with a hint of a tan. Nathan is also in accounting and finance but I have not made up my mind about him as his attention and attempts at conversation were permanently focused on Miranda.
DAY 4 (Tuesday)
My dad called this morning. He is still thinking about going ahead with his dream of starting his own marketing research company. This was the main reason we moved to Greece four years ago as my dad and a partner (a Greek friend from his days at university) had decided to start their own company. After studying mathematics and statistics in Edinburgh, my dad worked in marketing research for more than twenty years. My mum reluctantly agreed to the move as she would have to give up her university post to take up a lower-pay, lower-status job at a private college in Greece, with no official university status. After moving, we discovered, much to our horror, that my dad’s partner-to-be was b