University at 54

Well, I have written this blog and circulated it and been offered a job as Marketing Representative. This is exactly what I mean about getting involved. Through this blog I have now registered with the Student Employment Agency and been emailed job opportunities daily. You see the University is like a business and they employ many people so, there are lots of opportunities to progress. Then with applying through the University you have an advantage over other candidates in that the University know you and you can even use your tutor as a reference. Welcome to the family!

There are so many opportunities I feel that the academic work is only part of your journey.  University is an opportunity to add as many strings to your bow as possible. There is the Future’s Award which looks good on your C.V., you can get involved in this through the Employment Agency. It’s basically an award to show how enterprising that you are, that you get involved and work hard, there is the Bronze, Silver and Gold Award. There is also Be the Boss programme – which helps you become self-employed, if that is what you want to do after your degree, it can give you free training, workshops, grants, and bursaries.

What I have done is used my course work experience and voluntary work to gain the Future’s Award and then I have integrated my degree, so all my voluntary work is part of my final project. Get savvy with your degree!  I am now helping my tutor in the Theatre with her work with Refugees and what I am learning about through this experience is what I am writing about for my Dissertation and this Voluntary work will help me get my Gold Future’s award. I am also getting paid for writing these thoughts and I have applied for a job with the Student Employment Agency, just for the Summer.

My tutors work has been so inspiring, we have been filming a play, that has been 2 years in the making, with her theatre company, Destines at Derby Theatre, which has been a privilege to be involved in. I was asked to be a Background Artist and yes, they threw in a free lunch.

My change of plan is to stay put in my Summer Halls, for my final year. It is going to be much better for me financially. Yes, I don’t get my bath, settee and telly but there is a power shower, it is nearer to the theatre and recently refurbished, so, comfortable. I’ll just go to my mothers for luxuries!

54 – big age – time to do something big and yes I am part of the way there. And enjoying every minute of it – yes I live in Halls but that was part of the excitement to doing my degree. My first year was luxury Halls but this year I have really “roughed it” and lived in an 8 by 6 room with no TV and no living room and a small kitchen – the Common room was closed because of Covid. Last year was amazing – living with Chi Chi – a missionary from Nigeria funnily enough I have just messaged her about meeting up and having fish and chips – what I introduced to her last year. I knew she’d like them all Internationals do. Yes – it was luxury Halls last year with a settee, double bed and TV. This year has been completely different – with no such luxuries as a bath, telly or settee – but I have still had a good time.

My first year at University was actually quite hard-going although the work went well. Personally I found it difficult – it was very hard to adjust to living independently as this was something that I had never done. I went to see student well-being at one point and they said talking to me was very similar to that of talking to students in their twenties – you have to learn how to live and survive by yourself. Although thankfully we all make friends at University. My first week there and my flat-mate had not arrived and I felt very lonely – I went to enrol and had already packed my things in the car to go home and I remember crying to the enrolement officer and he said – go and unpack your things and go for a walk – he had emigrated here from New Zealand – he said to give it time and this I did and have now, never looked back. I would always say to students going to live-in to give it alot of time – months even – yes you get homesick but later on the rewards are great.

With the academic maturity of Canada under my belt, it gave me such knowledge and maturity, as too, has all my work at the University, I have now started to look at my Dissertation, my final year project. This is where my final plans come into fruition, I can let my imagination run wild and put my heartfelt ambitions into place – I have always wanted to work with the vulnerable and persecuted. As I understand this and I really want to encourage creativity and freedom of self-expression. It was in my 2nd year that I volunteered to help my tutor, Ava with her work with Refugee teenagers, it was great to hear their stories, what they have faced and how they are on the road to recovery and becoming successful.

I have decide for my final project to build a group called “People of Sanctuary,” where anyone who feels that they have had difficulty, persucution or control in their lives, somewhere that they can come and have a “free space,” where we can create dance and music. A safe place where we can dance, talk, socialise and create theatre.

I am so looking to my final year but first I have to move from where I am living and go to “summer halls,” it will probably be busier than here. However, I am hoping to make new friends and enjoy my Summer. I am also helping my tutor with her work over the Summer and planning my own work. It is all good news, so now I start my next chapter in my University journey. Watch this space.

After luxury Halls for my first year – came proper Halls for my Second year. My room is very small but built for study – I have a huge desk and although the bed is very basic – I sleep like a baby on it – probably because I am happy – I have a very modest kitchen and no living area space – there is a Communial area but htat has been shut for most of the year because of Covid. I actually decided to join the David Lloyd gym as there they had settees and T.V.s, and it actually kept me sane. I have had to self-isolate a couple of times in the flat – which has been challenging but the fact that I had homework – it kept my mind distracted from being locked up – I have also enough room to practice my yoga, which again, has kept me sane over the past year. It was difficult when the gyms were shut – but I also found workouts online and also went to my mothers a few times to enable me some normality.

There is no-one in the flat now, I am alone here but I actually have enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet and I am waiting to move into my Summer Halls of Residence. Chen from China – my flatmate went home about 2 months ago – I did feel sorry for her – she came all the way from China to do her Masters here only to spend most of her her time shut away in her room. She also had a real problem getting a flight back – eventually we got student services involved andf they helped her get a flight home – she had to fly to Finland and then Finland to China.

I did have a good laugh with Chen – we would quite often walk to the local park – she introduced me to Chinese milk tea – which I actually think beats your Costa and Starbucks coffees hands-down and it is much cheaper. She introduced me to the local Chinese supermarket, where I could buy packs of milk tea for a few pounds. It was through Chen that I saw that the Chinese are a very modest nation – despite of what everyone says because of Covid, there are good and bad people in every culture – the Chinese eat modestly and I would do the slightest thing for Chen and she would be so grateful – a walk in the park would keep her happy all week. She told me of her family and her father working so hard – often at the office 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Her mother was the same age as me and I think that they were quite happy I was around, to support Chen. As a visiting American playwright at the Theatre once told me a Mature Student can add a different dynamic to a group and any situation.

I now await to go into my next halls, which i know will be much busier, but perhaps more friends await and I can spend the Summer staring to plan my final year project, which I am very excited about and I also have volunteered to help at the Theatre over the Summer with some theatre work with vulnerable groups and I will be assisting one of my tutors. Again more friends, more creativity and living the dream. I could be a student forever.

When I first came to University, I looked at joining the societies – I found out that there was a Mature Students Society just forming – I went to the first meeting and I got talking to the girls setting up the society – somehow they asked me to be Treasurer – so I jumped at the chance – it looks good on your C.V., if you get involved with a society – it is also a great way of making friends and I actually found the friends that I made here were very lovely. We started to meet regularly as a group and planned events and how the society would grow. Although I haven’t got a clue on how to be Treasurer really, I’m 54 and sometimes find things difficult to learn – but, I have thoroughly enjoyed being involved in a society, even in lockdown we had a really fun quiz and chats on zoom.

I have remained Treasurer throughout my time at University and I would definitely recommend getting involved with extra-activities. Mainly for the social aspect. I was also Student Representative in my first year, again it looks good on your C.V., and you get invited to day events and training – again a chance to make new friends, do something interesting and occassionally they throw in a free lunch. It was through being a Student representative that I found out about a Voluntary organization in Mexico – to go and stay there and do voluntary work with the sea-turtles, I also put my name down and got accepted to go on this but because of Covid it has been deferred 2 years in a row, but I hope to go out there eventually – maybe at the end of my third year!

When I was Student Representative, I also had to do a speech to the class about my propsals as a Representative – I offered to organise a trip to Harry Potters studio – self-funded of course but my tutor thought I meant for the university to pay and I could see her nearly having a panic attack but because of Covid it never came into fruition. But to any potential students I would say get involved, be bold, with these extra activities come new opportunites and yes, more friends for life!

When I first came to University we were handed a welcome booklet and I thought when I get home I am going to read it from cover to cover – so I did… and there in the small print – was written – we also do exchanges to Europe and the Americas – and I thought – I am going to explore that. So I did. I found out when to apply which was the end of the first year and then I badgered my tutor, Amanda, to look into it. At first she was reluctant – no other Theatre Arts student had ever done an exchange before – but I persisted and she got in touch with the Exchange Officer and then yes, I was eligible to go. They have to check you see, to see if you can still get the credits to achieve your degree. I took the opportunity excitedly, but then because of Covid I found out that I couldn’t go out there but then they offered me a “Remote Exchange,” where I could still do the Exchange but remotely. I just couldn’t miss the opportunity, remote or not I just wanted to do Canada.

As I am not very technical at all but I have learned as I have gone along, the Universities have made working remotely through Covid very easy. Even the play we did for Derby Theatre, Drink the Mercuury, was all done remotely, we had to all record ourselves and send that in, then someone in I.T., put it all together for one performance. But I actually preferred this, as I could put my lines at the top of the video camera – perfect! No remembering lines, which believe me when you are menopausal – you can’t hardly remember your own name – let alone lines! Even studying remotely was fun, when I wasn’t needed in a lecture – I could turn my camera off and clean my room! We could sit in a lecture with your pyjamas bottoms on – which we all admitted to at Canada. Canada was such fun – even remotely – they all loved my accent.

Funnily enough, there was a great difference I found between European and American students. The Canadian students were really outgoing and you couldn’t get a word in edgeways whereas the European and English students are much more quiet and reserved. We had such fun at Canada, one night our teacher went out of the zoom class for 10 minutes and one student piped up … “let’s do a surprise for when Tim gets back!” So, it was decided that we all do the YMCA dance when he returned. It was magical… YMCA was blasting out and we were all dancing away – the lecturer was bowled over – I will never forget that. It was this lesson actually that was on at 11pm at night as there is a time difference with Canada… but I actually fell asleep not once but twice! I had to explain to my tutor as I was the only one left in the room for hours after the lecture – I woke up at about 1am still signed into the lecture! But I actually came out with top marks for this module – I got 80%! I achieved really good marks at Canada – whch really bumped up my grades over here.

It is really good how you do your degree out there – you actually build your own degree and pick whatever modules that you find interesting. My modules were great – I did Voice to Power Activism – which was all about Capitalism, I did Speech Communication to Inform – which is all about speaking publicly, then theatre performance and Theatre Design. Also each lecturer has an assigned assistant student to be a contact for the students and you can ask them any questions that you don’t want to bother your lecturer with and if you do this role they called it a TA – you get bonus points to your degree. There were also extra seminars to attend and if you attended you got bonus marks for your degree. I am now considering a Masters in Canada – the Exchange Officer has already given me a “thumbs up,” on this. Halls of residence in Canada at 56 now there’s a story, I have always wanted to see Niagra Falls. Watch this space!

Definitely the secret to persuing with a degree, is to give it time, time to adjust, time to make friends and time to settle in. I can honestly say that my studying at University has been nothing short of amazing. After studying for a Degree in my 20’s at a Polytechnic – doing totally the wrong subject and having a 2 year old in tow and commuting – it was very difficult – I left the degree before completing it, but I always throughout my life – had it in mind to go back and achieve a Degree. Then after running a cleaning business for 10 years, having the hassle of running it, all the problems – I just began to think that there should be more to life than this.

I started to think about Creativity, we are all creative at Junior school but with alot of us it gets lost in life, I really was talented at Drama at Junior school and I decided to persue what was in my heart – so I auditioned for a Foundation Degree course at the Birmingham Conservatoire – I got in – I think the tutor was impressed when we had to say something about ourselves and I told them of how I once won £10,000.00 on a scratch card – yes it’s true and people always love that story. from there I got in at Derby University on an Audition day. We had to write a review of a play and I had just seen one on the West-end that I loved – as all through my University journey everything has just fallen into place.

I have always wanted to write a play about my families WhatsApp group called Family Chat and that is what I wanted to call the play – Family Chat and imagine my surprise and joy when in one of our lessons we had to write our own scenes of a play. There was a chance for me to stage it at Student Scratch Night – for 20 minutes – in the studio, we all pitched our ideas and mine got chosen. I advertised at Uni and got Actors (mainly from the year above), rehearsals began and we were almost ready to perform then wham – Covid happened a Scratch night on 28th March 2020 was cancelled….. I was gutted ….. but everything for a reason……. with life there are always disappointments – at least you keep on trying.

If you are studying something you love and is in your heart …………. it is loveable .. it is work but you never want to put it down .. you just want to learn more and more. I love every assignment and soak up the learning like a sponge. When discovering your “creative- self,” you achieve a new happiness… a happiness that is difficult to explain, but some days I just feel so happy that I could burst. In acting classes we play, we forget about rules and have fun. Yes, I stick out like a sore thumb being my age – but the other students accept me. They know that I am there because I am serious about my passion – I’m serious about Theatre Arts. What a sad world we will have if we lose creativity, if we lose the ability to play. I made up a saying – “Create for today, for a better tomorrow.” If you are reading this, imagine what you really wanted to do at Junior School – what would happen if you rediscovered this ambition?

I first met Chi Chi in September 2019 – she came storming in the flat loaded up with bags and I was sitting on the settee. I had been dying to meet her as I had been on my own at Flamsteed Court for a while. She only looked about 30 years old but she was actually 45 this I now believe is attributed to her really healthy diet – full of healthy foods, spices and hardly any sugar. We both smiled and I found out that she was a Missionary from Nigeria. We had some great times – she told me all of her stories – of her times of going out to the remote areas of Africa and helping sick and injured elderly and children, she found a baby once, covered from top to toe in Ringworm. I found her work really interesting and we soon found that we had a common interest of helping and being empathetic towards people. I went to church with her once, she looked very professional in her Habit.

We had some great times – once I cut my finger and because there was so much blood me being the typical drama student had to go to A & E – Chi Chi thought that it was well funny. She knew that I didn’t need stiches. When Covid happened we both got a little scarred. I turned and said to Chi Chi – “Do you not want to get a plane to go home?” – “No, Alee” she replied, “I am a Missionary – I can die anywhere.” She always spelt my name Alee.

However, I did get a little frustrated at first because I had no access to a bath and this was always my way of relaxing – eventually the housing team offered me a room with a bath but I was such good friends with Chi that I decided to stay put.

I hope that one day, if I attend church either for a future marriage or indeed my funeral – that Chi Chi will be there for me in her Habit – I know she will anyway. Every birthday we phone each other and sing Happy Birthday, she is a friend for life – only the other week Chi and her best friend Judith came over for Sunday dinner – mom was there – Judith and Chi Chi love mom – they have almost adopted her. We are now planning a Birthday party for Chi over this Summer – I can’t wait – we’ll be dancing the night away to UB40 – just like we used to do at Flamsteed.

Come back today – flat is empty – there should be 3 others – Faz didn’t get her grades – Chen went back to China and really don’t know what happened to Abi? I love it here by myself – put my stereo on in the kitchen – I have just cleaned out the fridge – wiped it all down. We have a cleaner but I like to save her the work. I really sometimes wonder what Halls would be like if it was full of middle-aged adults – lol. I think we would have some very tidy and clean kitchens and coversations would be about kids and mortgages. But what would it be like socially? I really wish they would encourage more mature people to live-in – it would just give a different dynamic to the place. But the younger ones are nice – they all seem to accept me well.

Last night we came and met Chi Chi and Judith my old friends from the first year and they are coming to moms for dinner soon. See you make all these new friends and Chi Chi is a life friend – I always remember her birthday for some reason – 23rd August. We sing each other a song on our birthdays on WhatsApp – never forget that.

Come home today to moms – needed a bit of time to be in a house – Can’t believe how much room there is I can actually walk round and put my feet up and watch telly – luxury and there is a bath – amazing! Bought my washing home as usual – it saves money and my mom is more than happy to do it – I’m going to enjoy a few days here.

I read up about my Summer Halls and the manager is called Adam and in his notes it says he loves football – note to self – ask Adam if he enjoyed watching Euros – always like to connect with people and the more you know about the person the easier that is to do. It’s very quiet at my Halls at the moment as everyone has gone home for the Summer except for a few of us “Hangers on.” I still enjoy being there and my bed is a real paupers bed but I sleep like a baby there probably because I know it is where I am meant to be. The only thing I really miss is a settee and TV and of course a bath. I am dreaming at the moment about September as I will then have all of these living in luxury halls – I can’t wait.