The champ was here! You missed him.

I am CJ Curry. This is the Experience. And we're nearly there.

EPISODE ONE FIVE EIGHT: RETRO SPECS II

As I approach the final days of college, I've decided to look back on them. Mostly by taking fragments of my memories, photos and old blog posts and piecing them together in what I think and hope is a quasi-coherent and possibly clear retrospective of my college life. For your big fat information, of course. I'll continue the theme and jump into 2010.

Summer of 2009/2010 sucked. That's all there was to it. I had to work, my car busted, and so on and so forth. Nothing special, apart from cricket (love!) and re-reading House Of Leaves.

So, I'm now a study mentor. I got back to uni the day before training started, and I can recall spending a lot of time with a friend prior to the year starting. Not many others were around, but we became closer. Almost brother-and-sister close. Almost. We got there by the end of the year, though. Regardless, newbies came and we had fun introducing them all. Again, the best part of O Week was the Moat Party, but I also did some amazing stuff with friends during non-O Week events.

I'd also obviously moved rooms. No longer did I have the one with the weird geometric layout - this one was more square. But, I'd found the perfect spot for everything this year - swap the bed and desk, and go with that. Settling in to this routine wasn't difficult, and I still had awesome (albeit different) floormates. I sometimes wish I still had them.

My first big task for the semester was to apply for a scholarship to spend a semester in the UK. Though I didn't get it, I did learn from the experience, which is more than a lot of others can say. It eventually went to a guy who grew up in the same home town, with the same first name, studying the same degree, applying for the same university (and our sisters' names are the same, too).

If last year was a social life kill, then this year was anything but. I started losing a lot of interest in things that had previously been central to my life, and became more social. I started playing a lot of Nazi Zombies with Paolo, going out more on Thursday nights, and generally being more fun. It helped too, because it boosted not only my rep but also Study Support's. Which turned out to be a great thing, especially for my mentees for the year. I am still in regular contact with a couple of them.

During the winter holidays (exams flew past) I mixed music for the first time since 2008, had a visit from my then-girlfriend, and just generally had as much fun as I possibly could. Would I have known what was to come, I would probably have been a bit more morose.

The second semester was the one that changed my college experience forever. I had already decided to apply for Amy's job in 2009, and I applied for it. Nervous as anything, I went into the interview, knowing that some days before I had won the award for "Most Outstanding Student Leader" at the college. I was surprised as anything, because I really had not done too much beyond doing my job and working hard. The snowball had lived in Hell. It kept living in Hell, because I got the position. Amy was ecstatic. I was over the damn moon.

The rest of the year was full of up-and-down, but mostly down. The game of up-and-down started when we held a surprise party for Amy's then-boyfriend, and I had a talk with Amy that changed my perspective on one aspect of my life. As things went back and forth I tried to hold everything together, but ultimately it became too much of an issue. It all culminated, finally, one Thursday afternoon.

I had made the decision to stay at college for the summer, and moved in to the flat in late November. After that, realistically, things didn't happen much beyond just chilling at the flat and a December disappointment (though I did throw one heck of a New Year's Eve party).

Many thanks to the people who helped me survive 2010, in one form or another: Paolo, Jenn, Amy, Navin, Sam (both of them), Tom (all three of them), Mirosha, Marian, Raghav, Ben, Lucas, Clo, Christelle, Gen, Mia, Natt, Kez, Katie, Nicole, Annemarie, Kieran, Emma, Holly, Sammie, Kasey, Rishi, Rachel, Matt, Mike, Leslie, Ebony, Ellen, Stuart, Josh, Bridgett, Mel, Nick, Sarah, Kirsten, Lewis, Bowen, Jansu, Mandie, Bex, Portia, Ness, Elissa, Cass, Kylie, Darren, Mackie, Ronnie, Nadia, Ricky, Jack,  Elise, Eshan, Travis, Joe, Campbell, Leo, Jess, Abs, Mehdi, Shelby, Simon, Chris (all three of them), Sean (all three of them), Bathie, and about three others I can't write down here for one reason or another.

P