My student life.

I left school when I was 14 with no GCSEs and have had a few disastrous attempts at trying to gain qualifications over the years before finding the right path.  

My first attempt at Open University was with technology course, code M150. Now, how I thought I could do this I will never know. First assignment, essay on The Large Hadron Collider. Ummm I didn't even know what it was without Google and couldn't even pronounce it until my other half told me, he’s done it with Cezanne and Shostakovich when I was doing my recently completed humanities module, what I'd do without him I'll never know! I must sound really dumb but honestly I'm not. This was just all new to me really, still is now, and sometimes I need a little nudge in the right direction. In my defence, I did pronounce Vecchio correctly the first time! 

But anyway, going back to M150. Let’s say the assignment did not get submitted and neither did any others as I quickly knew I was in over my head and swiftly departed the world of OU. 

2 years later I found myself with the courage to try “brick” college, BTEC level 3 in Technology. Older and wiser? Not in this case. Well some of it I coped with, what stumped me was having to create a logo using arty, graphic programs. Oh and Excel! A problem I managed to deal with by doing ITQ levels 1 and 2 last year, yaay!

I didn't even make it to half term on that course. It really wasn't the right time or environment for me, all school leavers and me with kids closer to their age than I was. I also had some family issues that needed to be addressed too so I quit, again!

Nearly three years later, I am on top form! As mentioned in previous blog posts, In the last two years I haven't stopped! I've successfully completed high grade GCSEs in Maths and English and ITQ levels 1 and 2. I've completed 60 credits out of 120 needed for level 1 of my degree, humanities/art history, with good grades but I should find out if I've passed the examinable final assignment in a few weeks. I'm also currently three assignments away from completing the second 60 credits, social sciences. Out of four assignments three of those gained a mark of 80%+ and two gained distinctions. 

So why now? What changed to enable me to do all this? On thinking about it, I've come to the realisation that Technology (to that high level) really isn't for me, No shit, Sherlock! However, it was the path that I thought was expected of me and not what I wanted. I was never going to succeed in something that my heart was never in so it’s really no wonder that I failed, if you can call it that. Is giving up on something because your heart’s not in it really failing?

Instead I started at the beginning, I got the qualifications that I was capable of; the ones I probably would have got if I didn’t leave school at 14. I got the IT qualifications that I was capable of too. Now I'm going for the big one, at least 3 years of hard work ahead of me, I'm almost a year into it now and just enrolled on level 2 modules starting in October and February.

How?

Simple…

I've been doing what I want to do, not what I think is expected of me and I'm absolutely loving it! I highly recommend it!