By Jo Easom, (Year 2, BSc (Hons) Criminology)
I made the decision to start university at the age of 43 years of age. I was a single parent working for a term time only wage and facing the horror of the universal credit system. I knew I needed a future for myself and my youngest son that would keep us independent of benefits and so I took a huge risk and decided to start a degree in Criminology. Within 4 weeks of making that decision I was sat in my first lecture! I found I was entering the seemingly terrifying world of academia. My first few weeks were bewildering – I wasn’t convinced I had the intelligence to get a degree, I was 25 years older than most of the students, and I felt I was the frumpiest, least worldly-wise person in the lecture theatre.
Then I noticed amazing things happening! My brain woke up! Even though I have had 2 decades of co-owning businesses and responsible jobs, I found I was learning in a depth I’d not considered before. I discovered I love research. I noticed that I was completely absorbed by topics that I had never given a thought to. I also became aware of and uncomfortable about the situations too many people live in.
University has become more than academic learning for me. I am learning about myself, this has been prompted by lectures, staff, guests and other students, it is never ending! I have been thrown into situations in the course of daily life at university which has shown me how I handle myself, events and has made me decide how to change things in the future. I have identified things about my character and I understand myself and my sense of self is forming like never before. I didn’t understand that until I took the Briggs Meyer test, prompted by careers talks. Even when I owned my businesses, for some reason I always felt inferior to people in authority, but I have become much more confident. This has made me wonder if, with a degree and my new personal skills, I can make the move higher levels of management. I am not afraid of my future anymore and know I have the skills to handle what will come my way.
Being a single parent student is not easy. You have to attend outside of school hours, so childcare needs arranging which is always a juggling act. If your lectures are during the daytime, you have to find another quiet time to study after the kids are in bed etc. When someone in or the whole the household gets ill in succession, it obviously prevents you from attending lectures. Ive also develpoped the ability to type with one hand whilst holding my kids. Finances are very tight for me for at least 2 months of every year and I invariably think “I have to give up and get a job” but I have found that the key for me is organization and determination, keeping my sights on that better future. I am proof – it can be done!
The move to study, even though I was frightened by finances, my responsibility to my children and my lack of confidence, has been the best thing I have ever done for myself and I know I will leave with a good degree, thanks to the incredible support of staff at the University, and the ability to use it well. One final and amazing bonus, of which I am immensely proud, is the example I have come to set to my family, last year I encouraged my eldest daughter to join university as a mature student, and more recently I coached my youngest daughter to change her life-course from catering and just yesterday she has now got her unconditional offer to study at the University of Derby from September!