Gradually

Life I'm a student at Manchester University.

It's official, no turning back. I have a card with my photography on it and everything.

There aren't many days when you fulfill a life's ambition, when everything you've been working towards for years and years and years finally happens. Typically my induction was early in the morning, and untypically it was extraordinarily easy, a case of filling in a form and taking a section of it to a grand old hall in another building were a friendly face took my picture, checked my finances were in order and issued me with the card.

Times have changed. When I was first an undergrad I needed an id for the university, for the library and for the student union. Now I need but one. There is something slightly biblical about that. Also out with the laminator, this is printed directly onto plastic and swipes and scans.

It all feels real now.