Return To Education

 

Back in school, I did pass my exams but I look back and wish the results were better than that I had more of an effort. A teacher told me that I would amount to nothing and all I would be good for is taking care of my future children or be a nanny. Personally I think thought that was awful as being a mother or working in childcare is hard! At that time (1998) I wanted to work in travel and I went on to gain three travel qualifications (NC, HNC and HND).  After working in travel for a few years, I realised it was not for me. I then went on to work in customer service, mainly within finance. It was in 2008 that I made the choice to return to education.

I enrolled in an Access to Social Sciences course and so began my new journey.  It felt strange going back to college at 28 but I was excited,  To my surprise, the majority of the students were roughly the same age as me, and older. There were a few people just out of school too. It didn't seem like a massive difference until it came to how we actually researched and that is when I noticed how much things had changed,  

One class we had been sent to the library to do research for a sociology essay we had to write.  The mature students headed straight for the books, whilst the younger students turned to Google.  One woman asked them why they were not using the books,  The reply left me shocked,  "Books are not reliable plus I have never been shown how to find books in there  Google tells me what I need to know"  I wanted to cry! It was the start of reliance on the internet.  I didn't really like that but years later I would find the internet would give me access to what I really wanted.

Fast forward to 2015, and I have just enrolled in a Psychology degree with the Open University.  I did not feel it was the right course so I deferred for a year and moved over the the Health and Social care degree in 2017 and I found this to be much better suited to me.  I was so happy to be back to studying but I would come across a few challenges.

It was all going so well and then came the pandemic.  My education was put on hold so I could help my children through this massive change and help them navigate home education,  I had to defer again, twice, and then I failed a module because my physical and mental health took a turn, I was heartbroken and felt that I had really missed my chance.

October 2024 and I decided to get back to it.  I spoke to the university and explained why I should be allowed t return to study and that I was more than ready,  Just this week I submitted my third assessment for this module and only have two left to go,  This October marks the start of my final year. I can't wait to walk across that stage on graduation day.