And this is all the more shocking to me because it is university.
I mean, I won things at school, nothing ever major, but still certificates and such, because there were 800 students in the school. Total. My chances of winning stuff for participation and 'endeavour' (f'in PC rubbish) were reasonably high.
I NEVER, EVER thought I would win ANYTHING from university, because there are around 22,000 students. And I thought all of them would be way better than me at everything, that I would struggle through my degree, get to the other side, and begin working, having been a nobody at university, my only recognition being a piece of paper that said Hanna Jackson, Bachelor of Arts - Criminology and Anthropology.
Don't get me wrong, I kind of still AM a nobody. But I'm a nobody with 3 awards. While they may seem small, or trivial, they seem big to me because they come from university. Which is way harder than school, and more competitive.
Let me set the scene. It's February 2011, and I'm crapping myself because my first year of university is about to begin. I get there, I love it, hate my hall of residence because it was antisocial and I met pretty much noone.
Flash forward to June, first semester has gone well, I passed with an A in one subject even! I began to get sick in June. Started the flare up that was to be my worst. My grades fell, got worse, I wasn't even sure I was going to pass French (I did, with B-, I don't even know how), I finished my exam at the end of October and FLEW into full time work for summer.
Flash forward to New Years Eve, I'm bedridden for the next month, and not from any ill-fated drinking. I'm so, so sick. Then I started getting better in February 2012, after drs appointments, hopsital visits, medication and procedures. My first semester of 2012 was concentrated on "getting better" and coping, all the while still working one day a week.
Now this semester, this is where the good stuff happens. I quit my job, I'm in the swing of study, I decide to volunteer with the Disability Services to take notes for impaired students in my classes, because my friends are always telling me how amazing my notes are, so why not share? I also decided to sign up with Disability Services myself, so that, should I ever need their help if I got really ill again, I'd already be signed up with them. I viewed this as a sort of give and take relationship. I was giving back by volunteering.
Fast forward to October, and I get an email informing me I'm receiving an "Outstanding Volunteer of the Year 2012" award for my note taking. This blew me away, firstly because at that stage, I'd only been notetaking for 7 weeks; not even the full year! And also, getting recognition for something like this is so amazing. And completely unexpected. I got a lovely certificate, and a beautiful book (I REALLY LOVE BOOKS), and had a wonderful evening at the 'Council Chambers' at university, which I didn't even know existed but are really pretty, with nice food and my parents were even allowed to come - they were so proud. There were ten of us who got the award, but it's still very special because I volunteered for the good of it, not for want of recognition.
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| Me with my Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award 2012 |
Then, this week in Criminology class, it was our final lecture, and our lecturer puts up a slide in class announcing award winners, for like the best essay, and the best marks on the test, etc. She gets to the category at the bottom, for "Contribution in Class"... and voila! My name is there. I'm sitting smack bang in the middle of the lecture theatre going "omg what?!" while my friends are laughing at me. Apparently this award is given out based on feedback from tutors, and participation in the lectures (like answering questions and stuff) and from my tute, my tutor picked me and Lizzy, the lecturer, agreed! WHATTTT. So that was pretty cool. Not majorly prestigious or anything, but to be noticed out of a class of 200-ish, is somewhat surprising. I must really make an impact hahaha. I also got a lovely block of chocolate as a prize hehe. It's sitting in my drawer staring at me, going "eat me, eat me!"
Finally, today, something ELSE amazing happened. A few weeks ago I had submitted an application for something called an Access Award, something you get given for overcoming adversity and illness/disability/impairment, approaching your study with a positive attitude, with marked improvement in your grades and results. I wasn't sure about entering, since I personally don't consider Crohn's to be a disability, but it does affect my financial circumstances. Anyway, I applied for this award thinking "I'm not sure I even qualify, so I'm not going to tell anyone I'm applying because then they won't be disappointed if I don't get anything, but I'll apply anyway because I have nothing to lose in doing so". So I did.
AND I FREAKING WON. There were several winners, obviously, but I won a part of it! I get a sum of money toward financial costs/whatever I want. I am SO happy because I've been so stressed about how I'm going to pay for the new tyres on my car (since I don't officially have a job at the moment) and this solves it! And I'll still have a decent amount left over to put into my savings. I actually cried when I got the email this morning because I genuinely didn't think I'd get anything, and was just kind of ho-hum about it.
So these three things have made this semester my best semester so far, even if my grades have been a bit poor... (poor by my standards being under a B+ haha). And I don't mean to be immodest by talking about it, but I'm just SO thrilled and ecstatic and wanted to finally share some good news on my blog, because there isn't enough good news in this world
