Keep on Smiling

By Editor in Chief Claire Watson

Hello my lovely newsies, get ready to cosy up for another exciting issue of the University Express. 

In this issue we welcome our new music editor, Méabh Ní Chonaill, as she invites us to four fantastic festivals lined up for this season. 

Read on to find out how a creative writing class banded together to save a wounded pigeon. Trust creative writing students to make a story out of a dying pigeon. 

On a personal note, on Friday I graduated with a BA in English. It was an amazing ceremony, with UCC President John O’Halloran kindly telling me to “Keep on smiling,” as he handed me my diploma. 

Like many, my first year of university was taken over by Covid. We were online, and everything felt doomed all the time. I remember collapsing at my laptop and crying to my mom, “I can’t do this.” 

It’s been a bumpy ride, from online classes to accidentdally giving myself a bald patch the day before a job interview and C&S Ball, but it’s been incredible nonetheless.

When I filled in my CAO application, I put down BA English because I didn’t know what else I would want to do. 

As a kid, I always loved writing, but it wasn’t until my second year of college that I allowed myself to write my first short story. It wasn’t my best work, but it filled me with this burning feeling I’d never felt before. Everything inside me screamed: “I need to do this forever.” I don’t know if I’d have learned that anywhere else. 

I’ve made many incredible friendships during my time at UCC. My “buddies” will always have a special place in my heart. There are the lecturers who’ll always make me feel starstruck when they wave at me across campus, even if it’s been a year since I’ve taken their modules. 

I’m rambling on for far longer than I should. There’s so much I can say, but I can’t help thinking of secondary school Claire, who had no idea who they were or what they wanted to be. I know they’re in me still, in that awful maroon jumper, cheering me on. 

We can do it.