Hi, I’m Charlie

Hi, my name’s Charlie (if you hadn’t have guessed from the title!) I now work on behalf of a project, Aimhigher Plus, that talks about different education routes and next steps. I’ve created this blog, alongside some of my friends and work colleagues, to share their stories about the realities of education and to show the stories of how we got where we are.

But you want to know more about me, because this is probably why you’re here, reading this…

I’m an only child which means my parents were particularly protective over me and lived a pretty sheltered life. I admit I’m particularly fortunate that that side of things was pretty plain sailing. But when things began to go a bit wrong, I really struggled. Life experience thwacked me around the head.

I had a really bad time of it during A-Levels. I had friendships shatter and felt I was falling behind suddenly, and it felt like my world was slowly falling apart. I relied heavily on my parents, who were subsequently having their own problems with work and home at the time, to just ease the anxiety I was facing in my life. And things like this happen- unfortunately, life is not without struggle… but it still didn’t make it any easier knowing this and I was unfortunately very vocal to anyone that pointed it out.

Because of everything going on, I didn’t do well in my English AS exam, just scraping out with a D, which was far below my predicted grade. And this was a problem. I really wanted to get out and ‘reinvent myself’ and university seemed like the best option as I wasn’t quite ready to get a full-time job and move away all in one go. But these kinds of grades weren’t going to allow me to. I was suddenly faced with two options: retake or leave it all behind and go to the local college for a BTEC course instead to suit my inability to exam well and have to leave the subjects that I loved. I stuck with it, determined I would get that predicted grade and get into uni.

However, for a while, my parents didn’t agree. They hadn’t done A-Levels and no one they knew went to university. I grew up with the perception that university was all for know-it-alls and posh people. And I don’t blame them for this thinking; my mum went through the YTS (which was a sort of work training scheme back in the day) and my dad was a mechanic apprentice, only coming out with a handful of qualifications when they left school between them. They grew up with families that said work was important. And don’t get me wrong, working is amazing and if it’s the right thing for you, you should go for it. But if you have different aspirations, please fight for them. I wasn’t ready for work yet and I was desperate for more. I did fight and I’m so glad I did now.

I eventually went to an open day and it opened my eyes to the actual reality of university. There wasn’t any snobbery and lecturers in gowns. My grades seemed possible if I worked hard and I might actually get in. This set off a frenzy with me with open days and prospectus ordering and slowly my family warmed up to it, seeing the possibility of what university was.

But I hit another snag. I wanted to do English and my AS result stood in my way. I chose to retake it. I redid English lessons in my second year at sixth form, feeling a little bit like a lemon as I sat in classes with strangers but soon got over myself.

I eventually found the right course for me: an exam free course that meant I could study English alongside a creative writing course which seemed like the perfect combination as I frequently got caught with my head in a notebook full of scribbled stories!

It came to the exam period in my second year and it mostly went okay. My retake got the grade I wanted. But, it wasn’t all good news: I got an E in my English A2 which broke my heart and knocked my confidence. But I got my university place thanks to decent coursework that held it up just (and I really mean just) enough, so I was okay… but still felt I didn’t do my best and broke my promise to myself to get my target grade.

But as I look at it now, a little older and maybe a little wiser, completed university and in a job I love, all that pain, all the stress, hard work and confusion was worth every second. University really was some of the best years of my life, however cliché and overused that sounds. What I’m saying is, pursue what you love, what YOU want to get out of your life. Family expectations aren’t everything- it is your life and you live it the way you want.

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Want to learn more in a different format? Why not check out the YouTube video below!