Jiminy Cricket

What is it like going back to study after quite a few years off? Apart from the drastic change in disposable income and the painful reintroduction to essay writing, I have had noticed an old friend slowly infiltrating my life. It began with dulcet whisperings, familiar to my ears yet strangely unknown, like a voice on the wind. Slowly this voice became louder, my friend announcing his presence with far more verbosity, traipsing through my mind wearing Doc Martins to bruise my very soul.

It was then I had to acknowledge that Jiminy Cricket had returned.

Now for those who have never heard of Pinocchio, he was a little wooden puppet brought to life, who had some issues with lying. He also had an acquaintance, Jiminy Cricket, who was his conscience, telling him what is right and what is wrong. I too, had my own Jiminy Cricket, specifically he was my conscience relating to study. Throughout high school he made appearances when I would play hacky sack instead of study, or write letters (yes, letters! The things that people used to communicate before email was around) decorated with fanciful multicoloured texta concoctions, instead of listening to the teacher talking about Oedipus.

When I left school and began my working life, this presence began to fade, so slowly I did not even notice he was gone. I worked in jobs where you simply did your eight hours of work and the rest of the day was yours to do with what you will. No homework, no study, no constant realisation that there was some kind of work that you could be doing.

But now I am back at uni, every time I do anything unrelated to my education, I am left with a guilty feeling, knowing that I could be using my time more appropriately. That spending 12 hours one day trying to finish the 1989 Super Nintendo version of Super Mario Bros. all the while telling myself that is in fact related to my uni work, as I had a debate on the significance of computer games in society coming up, was in fact a highly enjoyable way of avoiding researching 2 major essays that I have due in the next fortnight.

Jiminy Cricket and I, although we have many differences and some days I feel like attacking him with a can of fly spray, are slowly learning to work together. He's always there, making sure that I don't waste too much of my time with my Nintendo and although I hate him for it, the feeling I get when my assignments are handed in on time is worth it.