By Lizzie
Getting an offer from Oxford has always been my most passionately pursued, and seemingly unattainable, ambition. I am delighted to say that this long-term dream of mine has come true and I have been offered a place to read English Language and Literature. Still in disbelief, I keep checking UCAS and rereading the email just to make sure I haven’t imagined it all!
My first memory of Oxford is from when I was fourteen, on the train home from a trip to London with my Mum. As we went past what a sign for Oxford, she asked me if I had ever considered the University. It would have made sense if I had. I had been a passionate reader ever since I knew how, and a deep lover of English since my first lesson. But, I hadn’t yet. To me Oxford was somewhat of a myth, somewhere where people like me didn’t go. I am entirely state educated and grew up in the North of England, this is antithetical to what I had always imagined an Oxford undergrad to be. Nevertheless, the seed had been planted and it was one that I would mull over for years; sometimes confidentially, more often in dismissal as something that I’d never actually achieve.
By the time I sat my GCSEs I was set on Oxford and going into year twelve, and a new college, I made sure to seek out all the support I could get. I was fully immersed ; I followed countless Oxford focused social media pages, drafted many, now discarded, personal statements, and I was even lucky enough to be selected for a summer school at Cambridge. With help from my college and a mentor from the summer school, who was invaluable, I embarked on the real journey. From admissions all the way to interviews, I have celebrated every moment and success in disbelief. The interview process was one of the most daunting experiences of life and I did as many practices as I possibly could. They were, genuinely, just like a conversation and after the nerves of my first, I really enjoyed the second. The experience was an amazing opportunity in itself; getting to speak about the thing I am most passionate about with experts in the field was so surreal and such a privilege.
When I finally found out, after an excruciating wait, that I had been offered a place I was ecstatic. I am writing this post the day after decision day, and I have been in a bubble of excitement and amazement ever since. What better A level motivator could there be than a spot at your dream university? Memories of the whole application process are ones that I will always treasure and be proud of. As cliche as it sounds, I cannot suppress a smile when I think about what the next years of my life hold.
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