Simone Reddington

Before I go any further and explain what I’ve been up to over the last few months, I must apologise for the radio silence as it’s been five months since I last wrote a blog post. In September this year I finally moved out of my parents home after two and a half years and moved back to Liverpool, where I am currently studying a master’s course in Mass Communications. I decided to apply to go back to uni this time last year but I chose not to tell anybody about my plan in case something went wrong and I didn’t want to jinx myself. Thankfully, everything went to plan; Liverpool John Moores University offered me a place early last year, I was able to provide all the necessary documents/references and found a room to stay in my mate’s house share. The last five months have been an absolute ball as I’ve been busy working, studying and living my best life in the city that has held so many happy memories for me.

Returning to full time education at the age of 25 is not the conventional route, and I never thought that I would return to my studies after graduating from the same university in 2018 as a fresh faced 20 year old. However, life has a funny way of working out and, after a year of working various dead end jobs I attended a university open day back in February 2020 where I was inspired to apply for a place on a master’s programme to study Journalism. Of course that was just weeks before the entire world turned upside down thanks to the COVID pandemic, meaning that schools, colleges and universities were forced to be online only for the next couple of years. I remember hearing how students were placed under immense stress during that difficult time as they couldn’t socialise and learn in a proper classroom environment and felt very grateful that I was able to enjoy my under-grad uni course in normal times. During the pandemic, I was fortunate enough to have remained on furlough before finding a full-time job, but I often though of my previous life back in Liverpool and wondering what I might have been doing if I had stayed in the city.

At the beginning of last year, I felt like I was in a rut. I wasn’t necessarily in a bad place as I had a comfortable home with a stable income and I enjoyed my job in a call centre as I got on well with all my colleagues. However, I felt that every day was the same and I didn’t have the social life that one would expect to have in their early twenties. My weekends consisted of walking the family dog, watching Netflix and nothing much else. The majority of my time was spent listening to customers moan at me on the phone about issues that I couldn’t control, and I didn’t get any appreciation from my managers. I applied for other jobs but none of them got back to me as I had no professional experience to back up my degree, so I decided the only thing to do was to go back to square one, and go back to education.

Originally, I wanted to apply to go to Sunderland or Northumbria University as it was close to my family and support unit, but the LJMU was cheaper (thanks to my alumni discount) and easier to get into, so I took the chance and applied to go there instead. I also changed my mind about what course to study as while I originally wanted to study Journalism, I then found out about a Mass Communications course, which appeared to have broader career options.

It was around this time last year when I received an offer with a place on the course, I remember that it was a Friday night and it was all over the news about Russia invading Ukraine. There was so much fear and uncertainty in the air that, although I felt so much pride in myself for being considered good enough, I didn’t want to tell anyone until I got everything sorted. In fact, I didn’t tell most people until August, three weeks before I moved when I handed my notice in at work.

During the last 5 months, I’ve been the happiest that I’ve been in years. I’m finding my uni work really interesting, met lots of new and lovely friends and absolutely love the chaos of living with my best friends. If there’s one important lesson that I’ve learned over the last year is that it is never too late to try again if things don’t seem to be going your way.