life in the darkness

I remember that day! About 8 years ago. A tutor said to me, why not try the Open University. I was stubborn. I did not take his advice. I mean, surely you need qualifications? GCSEs? ALevels? I had none! Well, not that were University standard! That was it. My ideas of a degree in any kind were completely dreams of the past! The student in Highschool being told, you won’t get to university. Your examinations are too low to even get into 6th form. The work was never done on time. Lied about doing it and finding any excuse not to hand it in, even before deadlines! Deadlines not the same time as her sighted counterparts! That was it then! No university degree! So off she went to the local college. No, nothing there either. Well, perhaps some city and guild qualifications, but that was scraping the barrol. The royal national college would give her further qualifications, but… Still not university standard! After all, they want straight As! Or AStars! No, she had none of those! Except one, in Spanish. Where would that get her? Nowhere. The tutor said: Have you thought of the Open University. No, she said. She was not intending too! A year later, someone else asked her again. Fine, she thought! I’ll have a look! But there they were! Degrees! Degrees she had no chance of getting! Because, you needed qualifications, right? Wait… They are not asking for entry requirements? No ALevels? What? So, there’s a chance? She kept pressing her arrow keys, further and further down the screen. There it was, psychology. Should she? The cost… How would she fund that! She enrolled on the degree, psychology with counselling, but waiting for the news, we can’t fund it from the government, she was then told, someone is organising the funds! Her degree could start! A stormy night of october, 2014. In bed, she sat, looking at her module work to do! Her degree had begun! A BSC! The year went by. The work, so far was pretty easy. Things were going to go up a level in 2016. At this point, she’d flipped between Open degree, health sciences? Finally, Psychology! Level 2 started! The step up was huge! The rope she held ontoo, to stop her falling free-fall off the cliff eddge was there, but she was closer to the edge. She had to stay on the face. She couldn’t slip, into the abiss below! There was no way of getting out and back up! Level 2 came to the end, but level 3 was starting. The edge of the face was precariously close. The first failing of assignments. That was it. Freefall! Should she give up attempting to climb back up and attempt the rest of the walk, up onto the platform beyond? Or just hang here, with the perylous water below! But there was help. The OU’s help, and a mentor she had found. Back to the metaphor. There were people calling out to her from above, and hands reaching down to pull her up. Come on Sam! You can do this! You’ve come this far! You are within distance of your degree now. The journey end is in sight. Keep focused, keep going! The metaphoric climb is coming to an end! You can get to the summet. The years passed, the last year, the dissertation year had arrived. No help from tutors, she was on her own; Finding the participants, interviewing them, analysing the results. All without tutor support! She had her mentor, but that was all. She was sure by now, this would be the failing year! She passed, but scraped through. She thought to herself, I’ll just accept I’ll get a third class. It will still be a degree. Fastforward to Lourdes, 2024. This student, from all those years back, is me! Nervously opening my email, for my DE300 results, I waited. The wifi was slow. Pleading for it to hurry up, I waited, holding my breath! Waiting for something like 40%, but there on the page, was 57%. Now, the degree classification is coming. What would it be? Nervously the next day, I kept getting my phone out. After a while, I saw it. 2.2 Lower second class with honours! What? A 2.2? That can’t be!!! Is this a dream? It probably was! It will be over the next morning. I’ll wake up and it’ll just be a 3rd! The next morning, I checked. It was still there, 2.2! I still can’t believe it to this very day! Now, my graduation tickets are booked, I’m in the process of looking at gown hiring! I never thought this moment would happen! I never thought I’d get a BSC(hons) Psych(open) Finally, it has happened! The degree I never thought I would get! All thank; to the Open University! Thank you for believing in people, who struggled like myself! Long may this continue! For those still going, there is hope! The light is at the end! Your degree is within touching distance! You will get there!