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.