Everything you find satisfying as a humanities student

Being a humanities student is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. While you may have a ridiculously small number of contact hours, you’re also subjected to about 38702199 pages of reading that you definitely don’t understand. Amongst the confusion and the very very low points, there’s the odd occasion that you, dare I say it, actually quite like your degree. Or more likely you find a few things a bit satisfying. Here are some of the things you’d only get if you study humanities.

Thank u bless u bless ur family

When you open a reading and it’s only 5 pages long

When you bang your essay question into Google on the very off chance something might come up… and something actually does

When you actually know the answer to a question of University Challenge (and then proceed to feel very smug about it for the next 2 days)

When you haven’t done a reading but then it barely gets mentioned in class

When you see an advert for some random exhibition that’s sort of in line with your research and you’re like omg I could actually go to this????? (obviously you never get round to it but it’s the thought that counts)

When your professor says “that’s a really good point” or “I’ve actually never thought of that”. YEAH YOU HAVEN’T.

If your reading has an abstract

When you go into the library and find the book that’s gunna sort you right out

On the rare chance something you’ve studied comes into a real life situation and you can show off your expert knowledge

Cute pic of my life

When the last 5 pages of your reading are a bibliography- so there’s only 15 pages of hell, not 20

When you do ok in an essay you worked hard for

When you do ok in an essay you definitely didn’t work hard for

Highly unlikely- but when your reading isn’t actually awful and you semi-understand what’s going on

When your lecturer is under 50 years old and, dare I say it, even a bit fit

When you look like a tru scholar when you’re reading the penguin classic for a seminar

You can whip out your reading in order to impress someone at a cocktail party to make you sound really erudite?

When people are exchanging opinions on modern politics and you can step in with your historical knowledge to bolster your argument, e.g. “Granted, Trump is more of a celeb than a politician…… but couldn’t the same surely be said for Ronald Reagan?” *drops mic*

When everyone else is moaning about their contact hours and labs and you’re just in bed binge watching Netflix like hehe

Or alternatively drowning in deadlines in the library

When you type something into Jstor and something relevant actually comes up

When uneducated cretins ask you if you’re going to be a teacher and you eye roll and laugh…. knowing full well you’re going to be PM and introduce legislation against that very sentence

When your lecturer thinks of your feelings and only sets like one brief reading for the week of your deadlines. God bless xxx

When all your friends have 9 exams and you have 2

When you’ve bullshitted your way through an essay to boost the word count, and you finally hit it

When you have a friend in your class and occasionally decide to split the reading 50/50 to reduce the burden

When you get a question right at a pub quiz (often more likely is the absolute heartbreak you feel when you don’t know an answer and your whole team’s looking at you like FFS)

Pls help

When you watch a  period drama/film and scoff at the historical inaccuracy. Atrocious.

When you manage to write an essay solely using online articles, avoiding all that library malarky

When you’re boosting up your bibliography with texts you have definitely haven’t read like the sneaky little snake you are

When your essay fills up an entire page at the end instead of leaving that uncomfortable black space

When you an answer in class because of some random documentary you’ve watched and embrace your inner nerd