When I arrived at Murray Edwards three years ago to study Veterinary Medicine, I could never have guessed that I would find myself spending my Sundays looking down from silks and looking up at juggling balls. I became a juggler after joining the Cambridge University Jugglers’ Association (CUJA), and then a year later I also took up aerial silks at Cambridge Community Circus.
For me, becoming a juggler is about more than just learning a few tricks. The people in CUJA were really welcoming and encouraging when I tentatively walked into my first meeting with a fellow Murray Edwards student at the end of Freshers’ week. I could already juggle three balls, but hadn’t even begun to imagine the range of tricks that were possible with balls and other props such as poi, devilstick, and diabolo. After spending time with jugglers, the impossible becomes possible. When we think of something that seems hard the question is no longer “is that even possible?” but “how long will it take to learn that?”.
Like all circus skills, juggling and aerial take consistent long term effort to progress in. The better you get at a skill, the harder it is to improve. The important point is that you can always see results by keeping up with practice and working on the right things. The can-do attitude of circus is something I’ve found very helpful to adopt in my studies as well. When I find something hard to understand, I consider it to be something I just haven’t learned yet rather than something I am bad at, then work to improve in that area. …continue reading…
Murray Edwards College - Going Places 