Half

Life Two days into the rest of my life and I'm beginning to understand actually what I've managed to do. Irrespective of whether I graduate, I managed to apply to one university, Manchester University, to do a post-graduate degree, in film, managed to get through twelve months of it, get all my essays in on time and understand some of it, and be sitting here the other side. Despite some of the disappointments, that's a huge achievement.

For me.

Who only just managed to get enough A-Levels to go to university last time (Art & Design and General Studies), who's never been that academic (failed English Lit), and whose mother was told one parent's evening that he would never amount to much. Ever.* You know when this hit me? I was flicking through the Media Employment section of The Guardian and saw a job which I was only half qualified for and the half was something like 'Must have a post-graduate degree in Film or related' -- and I thought -- I almost have one of those.

That's when this became real to me. What have I done?

* which really makes me sound like I was an oik at school when I was one of the kids who worked really hard but ended up with low marks anyway. I always thought what he said was a bit unfair ...