"So, are you really going for it?"

said Zoe, excitedly eyeing up my bagful of library books. Zoe was in one of my student society teams last year, and never seems to stop smiling. She is one of the sunniest people I know.

I recalled a conversation I had with her a month ago, at the end of the summer holidays. About how, last year, I had got so sick of not doing my academic best. About how, in summer, I was studying 40 hour weeks and getting through tens of articles for my thesis research. How I was set on putting in the work to get a first class degree.

I cast my gaze down to the bag I was holding. Indeed, there were six or seven books there, the majority of which had been read.

But these were what I'd read in summer. When I thought of the recently borrowed books in my room, mostly gathering dust, I realised that I'd stopped going for it. That I was so happy to have run a successful Careers Day last Saturday, and so excited to regain my life, that I hadn't actually got around to doing it.

I met a girl today who will soon have an operation on her leg, and, as a result, will be in plaster and a lot of pain for six weeks. Actually, she said she was already in pain. And that she wasn't looking forward to the operation, but was trying to stay positive and make the most of things.

I am in great health. At the moment, I have all the time in the world to do the things that matter to me most ... I can't lose sight of that, and wither away what might, someday, be precious hours.

Right. I'm off to do my thesis. (And I am determined to not post photos of my new iPod until tomorrow!)