A New Path.

I have been itching to write this post for some time, but I held back. Mainly in fear of jinxing all of my hard work and letting everyone down, but finally I can make it public and document my new career journey.

I have been working since the age of sixteen and in all of those jobs I can say that I have never fully enjoyed them. Yes, they have all had their own perks; discounted clothing, cheap holidays, free meals etc, but for me, they were just a way in which to pay the bills. Out of all of my jobs, I have probably only made a handful of friends for life, something of which I am eternally thankful for.

Back in 2007 I embarked on a Psychology and Counselling degree and achieved a 2:1 - I had no clue where to go from there and in all honesty, I never really thought that degree was for me. I ended up working in an office job which wasn't somewhere I aspired to stay or to work my way up the ranks. 

Once I had my eldest daughter, I knew that I didn't want her to end up like me, to just 'settle' for a job that she didn't enjoy. I wanted her to chase her dreams, achieve her goals and not settle for anything other than the best. I started doing a bit of research and, over time, I realised that there was one career path that I knew I would love. However, I also knew that I wanted to complete my own family, along with a surrogacy journey before embarking on this path. As the training is known to be very intense, I knew that I didn't want to be sidetracked by anything, least of all a pregnancy. 

Back in June 2018 I went to my local university open day to attend a talk in the chosen subject; I quickly discovered that my previous degree would no longer be accepted as recent study as it fell outside of the five year time frame that they required. Panic mode set in and, that night, I enrolled on an online access course; did I also mention that I was almost five months pregnant at the time? Looking back, I definitely took way too much on in such a short amount of time, but determination took over. I hate being told that I can't do something, so will always do my best to prove people wrong.

I started the course that evening and within a few months was applying for just one university. I knew that the chances were that I would have to reapply again next year; the course is a notoriously difficult one to get onto, especially on your first attempt.

A few weeks went by and an email landed in my inbox; an invitation to attend a group interview at the university. As ridiculous as it sounds, I burst into tears. I had never expected to get this far in my first attempt. 

The interview date arrived and I was a bag of nerves. I came out of there absolutely defeated and thought that I had royally screwed up. I even began to tweak my personal statement ready to send off again in a few months time. Three weeks later, an email came through to notify me of a change to my UCAS status. This was it, the moment of truth; my heart was in my mouth and the last thing I wanted to do was open my account. But I am so so glad that I did. 

Somehow, after completing a two year access course in eleven months and exceeding the required entry qualifications, I can shout from the rooftops that I am going to be a student midwife. Midwifery has been a dream of mine for so so long, and eventually I would love to specialise in Bereavement Midwifery; this side holds a special place in my heart and I cannot wait to train with some amazing people over the next three years. During this time I will be documenting my journey on my blog, however specific details will be changed for privacy reasons. I hope you will follow along!