Second Chances

G’day all,

This blog isn’t about my adventures in Australia, so if you don’t really have time, don’t feel obliged to read this! The blog is more on some thoughts I have been having over the past few days and will be especially relevant to anyone who is receiving exam results (that includes parents and siblings) over the next week or so!

I woke up this morning and saw it was Wednesday 19th of August and it didn’t really mean much to me at the time, just the day after mum and dad’s wedding anniversary and another day of uni! However on my journey home I remembered that it is the eve of the dreaded A-level exam results (and a week until GCSE results come out). This made me think back to this time last year when my fate was just 24hours away...

In all honesty, I was an absolute mess this time last year. I had stressed myself out so much since just before Easter about these exams that it made me ill and consequently I fainted through one of my exams which was meant to be my best module (Development Economics). We quickly realised that my constant tiredness, weight-loss and not being able to eat properly in the build up to exams was due to stress and everyone told me “As soon as exams are over you will be fine”. I wish I could say that this was true, but it wasn’t. I went to Malia with my college friends and was unable to drink because apparently this stress was still getting the better of me! Anyway to cut a long and boring story short the night before exam results was quite possibly the longest night of my life.

I was at Rishi Mistry’s house on the eve of results and we sat down to watch a film but we were both so stressed that we decided it was probably best I went home so we stopped stressing each other out. I got home thinking I would just get into bed and wake up the next day and just deal with whatever happened then. However I got maybe half an hour of sleep that night and I remember one of my college mates Nim texting me all night to try and get our minds of it! So the next morning came and after receiving a few texts from mates who had checked their Ucas and had got into their unis. I went and checked mine and I remember my heart was beating as if I was about to take a penalty for England in the World Cup final! When Ucas finally loaded up, I saw that I had been accepted by the University of Nottingham! At that moment I didn’t really know whether to laugh or cry or just go back to bed!

I think my stress and worrying made everyone around me worry so much and in the end it was all for nothing! Looking back on it, I probably could have done even better but that’s just being greedy – I got the grades I needed and I was going to begin life as a Nottingham student!
As you read this you may wonder what the point of me writing all this is, for those of you that are close to me will know I don’t really show emotions at all but I think a lot and keep those thoughts to myself, but I feel it’s important – especially to those who are going to be the recipients of results in the next week – to read this.

As I’m sure all of you will know, it took me 3years to do my A-levels as opposed to two and it’s because I didn’t do so well in my first year. However, I was fortunate enough to be given a second chance (and an escape route from Habs) by my parents (and the rest of my family) and Brampton College. Although at the time I felt awful, it was probably the best thing that happened to me – I met some amazing people at Brampton, I escaped from the prison that is Haberdashers and most importantly I managed to get my grades to go to the uni of my choice! I know it took me a second stab at A-levels to get it right, but look where it has got me now, I’ve completed my first year at Nottingham and I’m now on an exchange program in Australia!

I guess what I’m trying to say is that to those of you getting your exam results, if things don’t go your way tomorrow (or next week), although it may feel like it at the time, it’s really not the end of the world! Good luck to all of you getting results in the coming week, I’m sure none of you will need it! Enjoy your first year at uni because what I’ve experienced of the second year so far, there is already a lot more work to be done!

There’s a philosophy that I live by and I think that you can apply it to any situation in life with; school, work, friends, family, business etc. You don’t have to agree with it because everyone is entitled to their own opinion!

‘Don’t judge someone by a mistake they have made in the past, give them a second chance and how they respond to the second chance is the way you should judge them.’ – It isn’t actually a quote (as far as I’m aware) but it’s the way I live life.

I know there will be loads of you that will say “in some situations you just can’t give people a second chance what they did/didn’t do was unforgivable etc.” Maybe not immediately in some cases but over time, everyone deserves a second chance!

Don’t worry guys and girls, i haven’t become all philosophical, travelling/being in another country for a period of time makes you think a lot about your own life and life in general (I’m sure Nihal will agree), and as I said before I don’t usually share my thoughts but I think this one was appropriate to share.

Anyway, I have to do some reading about the Maji Maji people (a Tanzanian tribe) and have a new Ipod to set up thanks to mum and Beej! The next blog entry shall be back to normal so for those of you who were bored by this entry, don’t delete my blog link off your favourites just yet!

Once again to those getting results in the coming weeks – Good luck! Please do let me know how they go and if any of you want to talk to me about results or starting at uni feel free to email me or facebook me!

Miss you all,
Mihir