Since my last post I have actually started my BA (Hons) English studies on a part-time basis at the University of Northampton. I can’t belive that it is four weeks since I started, and I’ve learned a lot in that time. The most important thing that I’ve learnt so far is to have patience with the curve balls that my health throws at me. Examples include going to bed at night happily looking forward to class, then discovering that two of my conditions have flares up overnight, so my plans have to be altered. Although, fingers crossed, so far I’ve managed to attend all of my classes with some flexibility built in.  Another area that requires patience is getting used to the different pieces of equipment/software that I need to use because I can only read with one eye, and that eye is nowhere near perfect. I have been sorely tempted to throw some of the equipment at the wall when it hasn’t worked how I want it to, but instead I’ve just shouted at it and got very frustrated. I’m now quite proud of the tech skills that I’ve developed over the last four weeks so that I can really make the most of everything. OK a lot of people can just pick up a print book chapter and read it, but I’m pleased that I’ve speeded up the process so that I can get a chapter ready to read in less than 30 minutes. Kindle books are obviously my favourite because I don’t have to scan and format them.

i thought that I would struggle in class because I can’t just turn to a page to read in a book, but I think that my learning strategies for dealing with that are improving. One of the most important aspects for me is, time permitting, writing notes about the reading before the class so that I can try give my contributions by referring to my large font notes.

I’m absolutely loving my creative writing class, both receiving critiques about my own reading and reading the work of others (which they have kindly enlarged to twenty font for me to read). The biggest highlight so far followed me writing a 300 word piece for class in which I developed a character with a back story. My new university friend read it and said that she can’t wait to read the book based on this..I may have a busy summer writing after my May exam!!