Student Life – Going the distance

On a normal day

I'm usually getting up,

and getting the kids ready

for school,

heading to work…

I work in marketing:

the kids are getting a bit older:

I've decided to do more

hours so I've taken on

a new job at work which

is an events manager job,

but at the moment

I'm doing two jobs.

It's almost like I'm

being three people in one day:

I'm the employee

one minute, I'm the Mum when

I get home

and I'm a student in the evening.

I'm studying English language

and literature degree.

I was 24

when I decided to do distance learning,

I was pregnant and

I'd been made redundant.

I've been studying for nearly six

years now.

I'm really lucky to have

an incredibly supportive husband.

He comes home in the evening,

he knows that I'm studying,

so he'll go in the kitchen

and clean up.

He's always tried

to say to me, you know,

'Keep going. Keep doing it.

You're doing the right thing.

During my - what

would have been my second or third year -

I was pregnant, and I just

found that I was falling asleep

a lot while I was trying to study

in the evenings.

I had one day

where my dad

would take Josie, the eldest,

just for a walk for me

and I would

sit there and read, so I had

that time then during the day

as well.

Around two years ago,

my kids were obviously

one and three years old,

my husband was working

nights.

It was a really difficult time

just to find the time to study.

When I was struggling,

I had to ask for some extensions

and I contacted my tutor,

who was really good at just saying

I can have an extra week here,

an extra week there where I needed

and you know, they were

really good at supporting that

I think the first year,

in terms of motivation,

was easy but then as it's gone harder,

it's been harder to stay motivated.

One of the best things to do

I've found to turn it around

is to focus on aspects

that you can find interesting.

My advice to somebody

who's maybe struggling

with motivation would be that,

you know, the end is in sight.

Think about what - how good

it'll feel when you finish, because

that's certainly what drives me through.

One of the key drivers for me

when I started the degree was that

I wanted to be a role

model to my children.

You know, I wanted to be able

to kind of come out at the end of

it and say "Mummy's got a degree,

look what I've done and

look at how I've achieved it."

My advice to a busy mum

who's thinking about distance learning

would be that, if you want

to do it, you can find the time for it.

Often at big birthdays

I suppose there's a sense of reflection

of kind of what you've

achieved, and there's a huge sense

of achievement for me turning 30.

So much has happened in

those six years that I've

been doing it, but it's been great:

I've not regretted one moment of it now.

I feel like I'm a different person

now than I was then.

Things have been constantly changing,

constantly moving, and I just hope that,

you know, over the next six years,

even though I'm not going to do

another degree, I hope that

I can achieve as much over the next period

as what I've done in this period.

Go the distance.