This might just be a sign that my priorities (re: trains and food) could probably do with realigning
Doing the Telethon has been fab so far – it’s been great hearing about all the interesting things that Tit Hall alumni have gone on to do. I’ve spoken with a political correspondent from ITV news, a bishop from Carlisle, a Lehman Bros. employee from the time of The Crash, and a startling number of freelance cellists. That’s not to say that the people who I’ve spoken to from more conventional career backgrounds are any less engaging – I spoke with someone in the Department for Transport about Preston Train Station for about 15 minutes straight and loved it, but that might just be me.
It’s been surprisingly easy just chatting to strangers on the phone – part of this is no doubt down to the training we got at the start of the campaign, but I think a lot of it just comes with practice. There have been some awkward phone calls to be sure, but mostly the people that I’ve spoken to have just been kind of ordinary, and the vast majority of them are happy to talk about what they’ve been up to since they’ve left Trinity Hall. The asking-for-money bit is also fairly straightforward once you’ve had a few goes at it – having a script in front of you definitely helps with that, especially once you’ve had time to familiarise yourself with what it says.
The atmosphere in the call room is usually pretty buoyant – everyone who works here is super friendly such that, even if you’re having a hard time getting through to anyone on your phone, there’s plenty of people around you to perk you up with funny or weird stories about the kinds of things they’ve ended up talking about. The games and the snacks are also a massive bonus, plus the satisfaction of being able to go to hall in the evening knowing that someone else is paying for your soup, salad, and main meal combo is pretty hard to match. Again, this might just be a sign that my priorities (re: trains and food) could probably do with realigning.
Learning about what the Trinity Hall Fund does, particularly in terms of access and financial aid, has also been cool, as a lot of those projects tend to go on behind-the-scenes and therefore don’t get the recognition they often deserve. As someone from a state school background, it meant a lot to me when I found out that three quarters of the most recent intake of freshers were from non-fee-paying schools. As a community, I think it’s amazing that we’re at the forefront of making Cambridge the accessible space that it needs to become, though obviously there’s still a long way to go yet. I sincerely hope that, by the time that it’s my turn to be rung by students on the Telethon campaign, that proportion will be a lot higher.
As lovely as it’s been so far, I’m really looking forward to my six days off over Easter before we come back again. The way the shifts are set up make it such that the work is nicely broken up and, so far, I’ve felt adequately able to handle both my revision and Telethon workloads without being overwhelmed. The ability to stay in college, rent-free, over the holidays has definitely increased my productivity, and the access to library books has been massively helpful when researching my dissertation.
Anyways, I’m going to sign of this blog thing now and get some shut-eye, ready for a bright new day of punching numbers and nattering with alumni tomorrow. Bye!
