Tuesday 08-03-2022 - 09:00

When I was younger it was always a dream of mine to be a journalist. I loved media studies and did my work experience at the local newspaper. Roll on 5 years and at the age of 19 I found myself pregnant with my first daughter. When she was old enough to go into full time school I wanted to go back to work but needed something that would fit around those awkward school hours, plus not forgetting the fact that she wouldn’t be in school for 13 weeks of the year! Her dad, my partner at the time was thriving in his work, so it wouldn’t have even been an option for him to change career to accommodate for our daughter, plus that’s a whole other blog post! So I got a job that needed little training and worked part time in between the hours that Lilly, who is now 14, would be in school. I was quite happy working as a kitchen assistant in a school. It gave me a little bit of independence and a little bit of income, but I always knew that I wanted to do more. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice job to have, it was secure and it fitted around my family, but after 10 years of doing it, it got very monotonous and I thought to myself, if I don’t leave now, I never will. The thought of retraining or working anywhere else was quite terrifying. It took a few years in itself for me to even decide to take the plunge! At this point I had had my second daughter and was well into my 30s. I had little qualifications other that my GCSEs, and even they weren’t the best grades! I thought to myself ‘what is the point?’ there was no way I was in a position to change my career life around now.

Over the years, I guess from having children of my own, and working in school environments, I really wanted to get into teaching. It wasn’t until being furloughed during the pandemic that I started making phone calls and sending emails to a friend's contact at Glyndwr. I was really excited but still thinking at the back of my mind that there was no way this was going to be possible. How will I afford to quit my job? How will I study whilst still being mum to the girls? How will I fit lectures around them? As this ball started rolling it was getting me far too excited for these obstacles to stop me from doing this now.

Every single person that I spoke to was so lovely and the more information I got, I started realising how accommodating University actually was for mature students. After finally enrolling on my course, I was waiting to hear if I had been accepted. At this point, we were in full lockdown except for keyworkers. As well as the kitchen job I also worked as a part time cleaner in the same secondary school. I was in work one day and I just happened to check my emails which I hadn’t looked at for a while, and in there was an email from my now tutor Helen, inviting me for an interview! The only problem was, because I hadn’t checked my emails for so long the interview was for THAT AFTERNOON! (Idiot I know, but one of my first of many lessons learnt that in professionalism you need to check those emails every day!)  Now, I could have taken this in 2 ways. If I’d have not wanted this so bad, I would have thought ‘there is no chance I am going to attend an interview, for a degree, unprepared and such short notice!’ (Short notice was entirely my fault, the email had probably been sat there for a week!) or I could see it as a sign. A sign that I had caught that email just in time and that this was meant to be. It had happened for a reason and right now I had a choice.

Obviously, I went with the latter option. The nerves kicked in instantaneously and my mouth dried up, my heart started beating faster and my palms were sweaty. I explained the situation to my boss at work, who I hadn’t even told at this point that I had applied for university, and she told me to leave work and get ready for the interview immediately. So I came home and with a few hours to prepare, I wrote down anything I think I might get asked. The interview with Helen was over zoom due to covid. As soon as she started talking my fears and anxiety of starting University faded away. She wasn’t intimidating or condescending. She was reassuring, made me feel very at ease and was one of the most affable people I had ever met. The interview process wasn’t formal at all, just a chat about the modules that we would be learning about and timetables. At the end of the call Helen told me she would accept me onto the course and the most cathartic feeling came over me and I burst into tears. After all those years of working jobs to fit around the children, I had just been offered a place doing an honorary degree. At the age of 33 I was finally doing something that I had put off for 14 years.

Society has always had a funny way of making women feel as though they need to have their life figured out and that things need to be done a certain way. I believed that University was something I should have done straight out of high school. Then to get married before having children. In reality, I had a child, then had another child with a different man, then we got married at 30 and only then did I start the journey into my career. Believe me when I say, NO ONE has got it figured out! I do believe this view on how a life path for a woman should be is changing nowadays though.

From that moment on, after handing in my notice, I knew I was going to do this, and that I was so close to being in a professional career that I had dreamt of for my entire life (The sector I wanted to work in had changed but I always knew I wanted to have more of a career). In the first year of University, I did the foundation year before my actual first year I learnt SO much. It is insane as to how much you can take from just 1 lecture. And I had 3 a week! The work was intense but I just enjoyed learning and rather than wanting to get to the end of this degree so that I could finally be in a career I wanted, I remembered that where I was right now, in this very moment, studying for a degree in Education, was also a dream of mine. And I made the most of every opportunity and every assignment that was given to me. I learnt to manage my time and organise my week ahead and plan my study days around my little part time job plus leaving time out for me and my family. It is 100% doable. I am now well into my first year and I can’t tell you how fast it is going. I am trying to stay in the present moment and I am still enjoying learning. I have changed my mind on my career path more than once as every time I learn a new module I think, ‘Oh that sounds interesting!’ So I am now looking at going into children's mental health or emotional support for young people. I think after the pandemic this is going to be something that school curriculum will be strongly focused on so I am hoping to still be working in a school setting. I am also a true believer in positive mindset and law of attraction and when you open yourself up to things, more opportunities come your way. I am now also the social media assistant at the WGSU, a job that I dreamt of when I was younger! One thing I would say to end of this piece and to give advice to anyone who is wondering whether to retrain but is worried about being too old, or it taking too long is a quote I once read (This makes me sound well read but believe me, it was just off Instagram!) and it’s to never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

 

Written by Sarah O'Brien, WGU Education Student and Social Media Assistant

 

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