![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equality\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/159\/sites\/302\/2018\/07\/T-Ackerman-300x197.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
From the moment of opening up my results letter, I knew my life had begun. Well, actually no, I didn\u2019t. However, if I had, I might have been a bit more excited than I actually was. I had no grand ideas of beginning the start of my life, no overly emotional monologs of encouragement. Though, as I\u2019m staring down the barrel of my dissertation hand-in date three years later, I find myself being somewhat nostalgic.<\/p>\n
I will never forget my first day. It was an experience alright. Being the keen munchkin that I am, I turned up early for key collection at the University of Gloucestershire\u2019s (UoG) Francis Close hall. Unfortunately for me, I was too early. About four hours too early. Key collection started around 11 o\u2019clock and my family and I were stuck, wondering around aimlessly, searching for someone to answer our questions. Having not found anyone, we opted for breakfast instead.<\/p>\n
Cheltenham, I\u2019ve decided, sits in that golden circle of size. It\u2019s small enough that it doesn\u2019t take you several hours to cross from side to side, but it\u2019s big enough to have all of the interesting new shops and features one might expect from a city. Up until that point, I\u2019d never been inside a Primark<\/em>, let alone a Tiger<\/em> for that matter. I should, I suppose, clarify that by \u201ca tiger\u201d I mean the shop kind, not the cuddly ball of fur and death that accompanies Pi in a lifeboat way out to sea.<\/p>\n Having found an all-day breakfast, and having eaten our fill, I finally got around to collecting my key. As it happened, move in day was on the same day as the start of the Six Nations Rugby. I found myself hanging an English Rugby flag out of my 2nd<\/sup> story window. I thought that this might give me something to talk about with my new flat-mates. Maybe even bond over. There was only one small issue with this plan. Out of the 8 flat-mates that we had, 6 of them were Welsh. It\u2019s a unique feeling hearing one of your downstairs flat-mates yell out \u201cWhich one of you\u2019ve hung that flag out their window?\u201d in a heavily accented welsh.<\/p>\n Whilst the level of work was somewhat of a culture shock, I felt that I had a close-enough group that it didn\u2019t really matter. Whether we were playing Loo-Roll Jenga with my flat-mate\u2019s 80 plus loo rolls he\u2019d brought with him, or nervously waiting by our laptops to get that first grade, we did it as friends.<\/p>\n We worked, played, cried, and laughed. We consoled each other after relationship break ups, and we had arguments about who was drinking all the milk. We even managed to get our degrees completed, and had some fun doing it.<\/p>\n I created war torn nations, and struggling soldiers. Studied the intricacies of love, and complexities of modernism. I have suffered failures and enjoyed successes, all on a 56,000 word journey towards completion. I learnt how to write in a way I\u2019d never thought about, with the support of people who knew what they were on about. Express myself in ways not previously considered. And after hard study, and dedicated typing, I was able to create a dissertation that I was truly proud of.<\/p>\n The experience of University is not one easily described. Put simply, it\u2019s impossible leave the same as when you arrive. You\u2019ll leave with cherished friends, and loving memories. Statistically, one in five of us will even meet the love of their life here. Whatever happens, whoever you meet, grasp university by the tail and don\u2019t give up until you\u2019ve gotten where you\u2019re going.<\/p>\n Who knows? You might even learn something.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello This week we have guest blogger, Tom. Tom was another intern within our team. His post is a little different. But hey, we’re huge\u00a0advocates and supporters\u00a0of difference and diversity! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[96,112,109,113],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-friendship","tag-relationships","tag-student","tag-university"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1189,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/1189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/equity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}