Skip to main content

A Week of Celebrations

My day has gone as follows: me, waking up in a panic that I'd missed my train (and subsequently the release of my results). Me, eating a bacon sandwich happily with a couple of my flatmates feeling good about life. Me, realising it was half an hour until results were released. Me, nearly throwing up on the train. Me, getting said results.

All of the above have lead me to be sitting on my connection train with a small tipple I bought from Starbucks. Now, I'm not one of randomly deciding to drink at midday but today calls for it. Not only do I turn 21 tomorrow (eek), but I have just found out my uni results (double eek), and can confirm my place at the Uni of Kent (triple eek with cherries on top).

I am so, so proud of myself and my wonderful, brilliant, smart, and incredibly hard working friends. We have spent the large majority of our lives working towards grades and for all of us to have done so well is just fantastic. What's more, I simply could not have done it without them. Particularly my lovely little Miranda Gang, without whom there would be a significant lack of gifs and giggles.

This week is a milestone, for a number of reasons mentioned above. But I overwhelmingly feel so happy for the people around me and their achievements. I look at what everyone has thrown at them and yet, here they are, doing things - doing life.

It may be the wine adding extra mush to my emotions right now, but every single one of you should take a step back and look at one thing you've achieved recently. I don't just mean grades, or a ticked box. Just think about one thing that you could never think you could do and you've done it. 

 When I was diagnosed with syringomyelia in June 2012, I really did think I was slightly doomed. My AS levels didn't go to plan, and my A level grades suffered as a result but here I am, three years later with a first class degree with honours in English.

As always... "you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - A A Milne.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Teens don't read"

Earlier today Maureen Johnson pointed out that the view of "teens don't read" in the UK is deeply entrenched (which is a word that I now love  and had never heard before). As a teenager in the UK, the stigma around reading seems to be - to me - it's "uncool", it's "geeky", there "aren't any good books out there". I think the fact that a lot of teenagers in British schools are exposed to older literature or, perhaps, not that popular literature in lessons and forced into over-analysing and spending countless hours on 'what the author meant'. A point that was raised in this twitter discussion was that people didn't want to be seen reading, or didn't want to be seen reading certain books. It's made me realise that I never   ever ever  see people reading in the older years in my school ( ever ). Perhaps the odd year 7 (12 year old) or year 8 (13 year old) will read, but - from experience - they will probably be ...
4 comments
Read more

The people I have met through ink

I read somewhere once that one of the reasons books are so great is that one can pick them up a second time and feel how you did, or remember where you were the first time you picked it up and opened it. I stand by this idea as to one of the reasons I love reading so much. I am perusing the wonderful words of Ali Smith's The Accidental for my level 1 module 'Introduction to Narrative' and whilst this module is all very technical (and trust me, I do love that!) I am really enjoying reading a novel where the characterisation leaves a bitter sweet taste in my mouth and when I close my eyes all I can see is Amber; how she looks, how she dresses, how she smells... I love that. I love that I can read 200 pages or so of one novel and suddenly there is this person inside of my head and I can't get her out. Not so long ago I read R. J. Anderson's Nomad (the second in the Swift series) and I was brought back to why I adore fantasy so much. I felt like I wanted to fly, and...
Post a Comment
Read more

The concept of 'okayness'

Something I've noticed through both personal experience and observing other individuals is how human beings deal with the concept of being 'okay'. Generally we all have good things and bad things going on in their lives, take me for example: bad - back pain, medicine; good - family, friends, home, life, food, money... good stuff happening and change (change is an 'okay' right now rather than a 'not okay'). I happen to think that my life is  okay at the moment because, for me, the good stuff out ways the bad stuff by a milestone. Throughout a day I may become not okay but on the whole I am - on the whole I'm happy. I have noticed though, through reflection and looking at others, that we almost have this desire... this tendency to want to point at the 'not okay' bits of out lives and make them of a higher importance than our 'okay' bits. If I'm having an average day it can much more easily become a bad day than a good because I reme...
2 comments
Read more