Have I done enough? What is my back-up plan? Should I start applying for jobs, just in case? I heard TK Maxx has an opening... my parents will be so disappointed if I don't get in... please...please...please...
The morning of results day was a blurry one, filled with nausea. Having originally applied for a degree in English literature and French, the stakes were high. I was dwelling on the English exam we'd had that year, which required us to write two concise essays in the small space of two hours... and the French exam? C'était trop complexe! Nonetheless, my head was held high.
I met my best friend at the corner of the road that led down to our school; she had the exact same expression of dread and fear plastered across her face. It was then that we admitted to each other that, before meeting to collect our official results from school, we had already checked our UCAS page to see whether we had got in to our chosen universities... with no luck. The rest of the day was spent at the park, eating Wotsits and melodramatically mourning our future.
However, a few days later, after scrolling through endless Clearing advertisements, I was finally accepted to the University of Manchester to study French and Spanish, and I've never looked back. Not only has studying two languages broadened my perspective of the world but I've managed to meet and travel with such a variety of people – with whom I can speak almost fluently!
I was worried that by not studying English literature, my passion for writing and reading would not flourish as much, but I was clearly misled. My English has improved drastically since coming to university, and I find myself participating in such intelligent conversations that I would have never done before.
Annoyingly, I was (and still am) constantly riddled with questions from high school friends, asking me if I was going to become a teacher or a translator, as though they were the only two options available to me. How wrong they are! The jobs I have considered range from a foreign film critic in Argentina to an employee at L'Oréal Paris. The world is truly my oyster.