If you’re reading this, there’s a big chance you’re one of those who know that I’ve been working on my History coursework for ages (in addition to Literature, but that’s for another post). And I am proud to hereby ask for your ‘Congratulations’! Yours truly has finally sent in the assignment.

This was the coursework task: ‘Within the context of 1898 to 2007, how far has China’s history contributed to its potential as a future superpower?’ 

Was I an idiot to choose this title? Very much. Not least because China’s history is so – well – much, even more so over the span of the recent last century. And even after proofreading the end product, there was only a single-sentence mention of both World Wars I and II. I admit, the amount of resources on China was overwhelming, though thank God there was information (of which I got off the school library, the Jubilee library, Waterstone’s bookstore, Amazon books, Googlebooks, as well as statistical information from the Internet – I’m listing them just so I impress my future self).

For the most part, the writing of the essay itself wasn’t fun, and I had to constantly change my writing plan depending on how it suited the essay and as different historical events came into light. Points were shifted back and forth, the essay structure changed again and again, and the language was edited every time the structure/points changed or when the essay was extended. And because this was my first History assignment for the Exam Board, I had no idea which tack to use for approaching a 3000-word essay. In the end, the research was done simultaneously as the essay was being written, but it definitely helped that I had watched documentaries and short video clips, and read a handful of background information when beginning to tackle the coursework. 

Intense? You bet. Especially because I wanted to make it a perfect essay, and because I found so many interesting (but utterly irrelevant) pieces of information. This sense of accomplishment, however, is incomparable.

I always sort of tuck my writing work away, keep them like keepsakes, and they never fail to remind me of what I can do. Just so you know, this one’s going on top of the pile.