Post by Noah C.

Thought you were done with graduation posts? Think again. Though a tad belated, I’m happy to share that earlier this summer I graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Double First Class degree in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic — plus a First with Distinction at Part II, ranking 5th in the year. Over my final two years I wrote two dissertations of which I am particularly proud. Not only did they score very highly, but no doubt proved of immediate, daily relevance to the great many burgeoning scholars of early medieval stenography and ritual: firstly, “The Tironian Legacy in the Carolingian Age: Shorthand and Pedagogy in Two Ninth-Century Manuscripts”, and latterly, “Dedication of a Church: A Comparison of Church Dedication Rites in Four Canterbury Pontificals (Tenth to Twelfth Centuries)”. Documenting the shocking developments of the thirteenth century will have to wait… When applying to Cambridge, I remember being told that the college you picked didn’t matter. This couldn’t have been further from the truth. Queens'​ College, Cambridge has been more than a place of study; it has been a home. And, at the risk of sounding overly platitudinous, I leave it with the best of friends and the best of escapades: namely as JCR President, BATS committee member, and captain of the rugby club. It also offered the ideal launchpad for the very many eclectic adventures peculiar to undergraduate life: from playing American Football in the Varsity team or acting as the Chancellor’s train-bearer during the annual Honorary Degree Ceremony, to moonlighting (unconvincingly) as a thesp at the ADC. I am very grateful for the opportunities offered to me over my time at Queens’ — it is as close, I suspect, as one can get to the pinnacle of the collegiate experience without developing an unhealthy addiction to rowing. The friends I leave with were forged in the carousing nights of Freshers’ Week and galvanised over years of gyp-hopping, frepping, balloting, Bop-ing, punting, brunching, blagging, and a host of other activities for which only our own baroque lexicon of verbs will suffice, and of which I have certainly had my fill. Whilst ASNaC may not be my professional destiny, I feel deeply fortunate to have studied a subject I love; even if it means explaining my degree for the rest of my days, it was unequivocally worth it. And Queens’ further still.