We could have used this article to boast about our astonishing statistics, but we decided a spot of nostalgia would be more in order, as we find ourselves celebrating two years of tenth anniversaries in a row – the Writing Lab’s in 2011 and the Language Centre’s this year. These kinds of celebrations make you think back over how far you have come and start remembering how things used to be long ago.
What strikes me as most memorable about this year’s anniversary is that it marks the first decade of our having our own physical space. In previous articles we have told you how we started working in cramped quarters, Sharifa and I sharing an office kindly leant to us by the Department of Social Work and Anne-Mari two floors above us, sharing a desk and stationery with several other people and no telephone between us.
Gradually during our first year the technological challenges were worked out: We all got our own e-mail addresses, desk space and use of stationery were negotiated, and we found ways of overcoming the telephone problem. But we did not have a home of our own until 2002.
We had known for quite a while that we were moving into the Victorian semi-detached buildings in Crozier Street before we actually did so and we had spent many a happy hour planning how our furniture would fit in, where our very own (!!) desks would go and where we would keep our own (!!) stationery. We had organised our own (!!) telephone lines at places where they would be most convenient. We even had floor plans of our own (!!) offices.
But nothing could have prepared us for the incredible experience of actually having our own space. It was so big. We could turn around without bumping into one another. After our house-warming party, we spent many a laborious hour on our knees picking cake crumbs off our own (!!) new carpets. Nothing would spoil the pristine picture we had struggled so long to create.
For the first time we were in a space that didn’t actually belong to someone else. We could finally put our own stamp on it. And over the years we have. The 19th-century Crozier Street buildings were houses originally and we like to feel that we have brought back something of the buildings’ original purpose in the safe, accommodating environment we have striven to achieve for students learning to negotiate the academic environment. We feel proud that we have made our Writing Lab a place for all academics, no matter how new, to feel at home in.
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