Blog
"Weekly Info", Spring Week 9: All over bar the shouting
With less than 24 hours of voting remaining, it's nearly all over.
I've sent this advice to all the election candidates, but it applies to campaigners, campus press, everyone involved too:
Regardless of what happens on Saturday night - win or lose - take some time away from York if you can. Even if it's just going home to your folks on the Sunday, or taking a train out to Scarborough, or something like that - leave your phone at home and take a day (or a week if you're lucky enough to be able) to take your mind off things. No matter what happens at Results Night, it's not nearly as important as making sure you keep your sanity. This time last year I was saying lots of things like "it's just student politics, it's not important", and while I'm not quite sure about that any more, it's still important to remember the big picture.
To quote Carl Sagan, remarking on a famous photo of the Earth from afar in which the whole planet is nothing more than a bright pixel:
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."
So when voting is over, and the dust from results night is beginning to settle, take a break and leave the university bubble for a little while. There's an entire universe of opportunities out there; remember that.
All the best, and good luck. See you at Results Night.
