Right okay, so as we already know being a parent is a hard task. Its life consuming having a miniature human entirely reliant on you, then add in looking after yourself and having some form of your own life and you’ve got a full time job on your hands; and that’s without actually taking into consideration the actual job you need to do in order to fund their ever growing appetite and clothe their tiny bodies that don’t EVER seem to stop growing.
Im in that position myself, I work part-time, I’m a single parent, and if it wasn’t busy enough already I decided to throw a Biomedical Science degree into all that as well. It’s hard, testing and every word you can use to describe exhausting. However, with all that being said, I love every little bit of it. When I come in to uni, I feel as though this is my time; my time to take off the “mum-hat” and just be me. My son wouldn’t care whether I went to study or not, but this is something I enjoy that I do for me. When I come through the doors of the science centre in the morning, I get the opportunity to be anything I want to be and I need that (as Im sure any parent does).
Finding the time to balance all of my hectic life was a challenge,especially in level 4. It was a massive shock to the system when suddenly once my son has gone to bed that I don’t just get to sit on my sofa and chill, I had uni assignments to do and exams to revise for. I found that being a parent and a student made me adapt quickly though because, let’s be honest, I had to! They’re both two massive commitments and if you’re willing to put in the time and effort you will succeed. Like I said, I struggled and the beginning of 1st year but somehow managed to achieve a 2:1 overall, which I was thrilled about. You can find little ways to adjust your life to include uni work. So currently, as a level 5 student, I have begun to watch conferences and talks on YouTube on science topics whilst I’m cooking tea for the evening. Another one of my favourites is that I will read my son a paragraph of one of my text books as a night time story. His personal favourite is microbiology because of the funny pictures. Even if I have lecture that doesn’t start until 12pm, I’ll still come in for 8:30am because it means that if I have any work to do then I’ve got this time to play with and get it done. It also means that I get a decent car park spot in the morning but that’s by-the-by.
Right okay, real talk. If you’re capable of raising a little human then you’re more than capable of completing a degree, and whilst it is difficult I have faith in you and more importantly have faith in yourself. You’ve got this. I seem to be doing it, and so can you. When you have the difficult days just think about how much you will be benefiting your child and the life that you can offer them. Think about how they will look up to you and how once you’ve got the degree how no one can take that away from you. The staff within the university are amazing, and the majority of them are parents themselves so they understand what you’re going through. Don’t be scared to ask them for any support because they can and will help you in any way they can.
Natalie
BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science – Level 5
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