You can trust the content and provenance of the quotation above because no one in history has ever returned to Vinyl after their first visit. How was your freshers’ week? Mine was, for the most part, an exercise in forgetting names and being frogmarched between Cambridge’s various nightlife establishments. The quote above is actually taken from one of Byron’s letters to his lawyer.
He was seventeen at the time, on his way to Trinity College, and heartbroken to not be going to Oxford. “My college master’s matriculation speech focussed on horse tranquilliser and online gambling” A year on from matriculation, I can remember lining up wearing a gown with more holes than I had limbs so I could take a photo in which I was told by the photographer that I was smiling incorrectly. By contrast, Byron wrote that his “appearance in the Hall in my State Robes was , but uncomfortable to my .
” Like Byron, you might find that it’s hard to feel comfortable in these superb situations. Post-matriculation, there is a fine image of young people sitting around candlelit tables, talking excitedly, and feeling like a part of history. The reality might be closer to being sat beside your college chaplain justifying why you chose French A-Level, trying to sound profound, and being scolded for incorrect port etiquette – that was my experience, anyway.
The modern Cambridge experience is perhaps not as romantic as I had hoped it would be when I was a bright-eyed fresher. The post-matri.
