Stigma, Studying and Save The Last Dance (I'm a child of the 90's, don't judge me!)

Ok, so I meant to upload this blogpost after the Scottish grades came out but as it happened I posted something else so I thought that I would delay this until after the English grades were released.

I can't claim to know what some of you might be feeling, if you got the grades for your first choice I guess you must be ecstatic, if you have gone through or are going through Clearing perhaps not, perhaps some of you are not even contemplating HE anymore (although if that is the case I am not sure why you would be reading an academic support worker's blog!) but if you are continuing onward in studying, I want to say something about what you should expect.

First for those who have got a place (or who will get a place) through Clearing. I went through Clearing to get my place as an undergraduate and at the time I felt, (actually some days I still feel like it), a failure and an imposter, like I somehow tricked the system and I remember there being a lot being said about the "University Experience" which obviously I would miss out on because I did not have a place in halls and instead would be going straight into a shared house with people I would meet and agree a contract with in the space of 24 hours (3 guesses how that turned out!) In fact now that I think about it, I don't remember telling many people I went through Clearing to get my place, not that it would've mattered (I don't think) but I was always aware that I was not "like" those in the groups of people who wandered into lectures because they all came from the same flat in the same residence, had all come together to University from the same school or shared the same success story. I was an outsider.

All of this however, was in my head. There was no sign above my head that flashed "He went through Clearing", I did not have my mediocre grades tattoed on my skin or emblazoned on my clothes, no one knew that I was any different to anyone else and in fact, it was only last year when my wife and I were clening that she observed "I thought you were a straight A student from the way you talked." My point here is that, while this moment might feel like a defining moment, it really is not.

I worked hard during my undergraduate degree (as I am sure you will) and I got good marks, mediocre marks and even bad marks, but all the way I learned more about the kind of academic I am, where I did well and where I didn't, what my opinions were and most of all, not to compare my marks with those of my peers because whether they had gone through Clearing or not, at times I did better than them and at other times not. The lesson to be learned, University is what you make it.

Which brings me to the second thing which I have to say and this applies to all students no matter who you are. There is a lot of talk about the "University Experience" as if it is some singular thing, particularly in recent years, in relation to the inclusion of online learning. I am unafraid to say that this is a myth. There is no single experience that every single one of you should have or will have, it will be different for every single one of of you. You will not all have the same successes or failures, you will not all make the same mistakes or feel the same way. You will have precisely what you want and nothing else, which brings me to the film reference in the title of this post. In the final act of Save The Last Dance, another Patrick Thomas, (OK, Sean Patrick Thomas!) asked Julia Stiles, the question "Do you want to do this Sara, I mean you", emphasising to her at this point that no one else mattered, no one else but her determining her future and my final piece of advice to you is that, ask yourself what you want and then make it happen. That's University.

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