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The Learning Institute

The Learning Institute

Evie's Diary #4: First year? Done!

First year? Done! How the first year of this degree is already finished I’m not sure entirely sure?! How can it have gone so quick? I still can’t explain or even begin to understand how or where the time went, but this year has flown by!

Final assignments are finished, and we are awaiting our results, very nervously may I add. But we have done it! We have all come a long way from the nervous, anxious and disbelieving group of students we started as, and I couldn’t be prouder of us. Some of us have had Covid to tackle, self-isolation periods and personal issues to tackle, but we still kept going and achieved so much! Honestly, I feel like I could burst with pride for myself and my friends.

It’s incredible to think that this time last year we were sorting student finance, writing UCAS applications and beginning to think about the summer tasks. I won’t lie, I didn’t go to any Information Sessions or even read much about the course. I was that anxious I just wanted to bury my head in the sand and deal with it when it was time to start. If I could go back in time, I’d have done all the preparation I possibly could have done, utilised all the support that was already there and just stopped burying my head basically! Having been a Student Ambassador in the Information Sessions, if there is one piece of advice I’d give to any prospective students then it would be just go! Find out what it’s all about, meet the tutors and have a chat with us. Trust me, it will make so much difference!

2020/21 is a year that no one is going to forget in a hurry that’s for sure, with its metaphorical mountains to climb and rivers to cross for everyone, but for this cohort of students I think it will always be a special one. It will forever be the year we all realised our potential, the year we found that we can do anything we put our minds to and the year we kick-started our first step towards bigger, better and brighter futures. I’m getting a little emotional writing this, especially thinking about the person I was when I started and the person I am now. I had no self-belief, no future aspirations or career ambitions. All I knew is that I wanted to be a better practitioner. But none of that is true any more - I have direction, ambitions and goals, I am on a pathway to achieve. Never let anyone hold you back. If you are reading this, just know that you can do it and I believe in you. The Learning Institute will look after you, I promise.