Perhaps the most memorable of all the experiences in getting to where I am now was the agonising wait for Results Day.
My last exam took place in June, and that was it, I went from the biggest amount of stress, work and commitment that I had ever done to just… waiting. It was difficult to make such a quick change.
Results day feels like a daunting prospect from whatever point, whether it is stepping out of that last exam or the night before – it is a thought that never fully leaves you. Summer was a blur, a well needed rest but also nerve-racking. I was waiting for this piece of paper that would determine where the next four, or more, years of my life were going to be, who I was going to meet, and what I was going to be a part of. It mattered to me.
Family support
Probably the biggest source of comfort during that time was my friends and family. My friends from college helped me realise that I was not the only student in the world who was stressed or anxious, it did not make the feeling go away, but it did make me feel like I was not alone. My family were also amazing, we organised to go away for weekends during the summer just to break up the wait and give me something else to think about. I would encourage any student to do the same as some of my happiest memories of the year were from those times.
A mix of emotions
Then as the weeks passed and that looming day got closer, the nerves increased but other emotions began to crop up. Excitement, determination, and anxiety among so many others, as I began to think about this stage of my life that I had been desperate to have. It was real now, not just a far-off fantasy. There was a good chance that I was going to study at a university I had been in awe of since primary school, that being Durham. It truly was a dream coming true, so it was almost impossible to not be excited about that. Yet I still needed those grades.
The hard work paid off
Results day came. I remember sitting, constantly refreshing the UCAS website and my email, waiting for that confirmation that all that effort had been worth it. Then it came. Joy, relief, shock and more hit me all at once. I had done it. All that work had been enough and for probably the first time in my life I could genuinely say that a dream had come true.
I suppose my takeaway for any student going through that same period is, to experience it. It is a time in your life that is unlike anything else, this weird limbo between one stage and the next. It feels like forever, but take it all in – the highs and the lows, because you will never have anything like it again.
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