As a mature student, i dare to say that ‘reading week’ for me is slightly different to those of my much younger colleagues. For them it’s likely to be an opportunity to stay up all night studying and putting finishing touches to assignments and essays. I have images in my head of those ’18’s to under 30’s who have all the time in the world with a choice between hitting the party scenes all week if they want to or just hugging the library spaces till the middle of night studying and i’m filled with a mix of nostalgia and envy for the days when i was in that age bracket and the only thing i cared or worried about was what to wear.
My journey into being a mature student has been a long and arduous one, challenging at times but rewarding. Sometimes pushing me beyond what i had perceived to be my limits as a human being. It has often prompted me to fall into old cliches of reciting self affirmations which i used to think i was above doing, i now find myself using phrases such as ‘still i rise’, ‘dog days are over’ (a personal favorite after exams). These have become coping mechanisms and even though i used to laugh at other people for doing the same thing, i can now say that I’ve seen the error of my ways and now fully embrace these affirmations, though they are only words, i find them immensely soothing.
With the school term in full gear, I’m constantly feeling rushed and hassled, trying not to miss deadlines, whether it’s submissions for essays or applying for work placements that won’t commence until the summer of ’19’. It’s a constant buzz and a whirlwind of activity for everyone, not just mature students. I suppose what makes it different for me is all the outside responsibilities from being a mum and working while schooling full-time, sometimes i think that i must be mad to do this but in the midst of all the distractions i know that i wouldn’t change it for the world.
Going to school as a mature student and staying in the programme to complete it can be the highest level of accountability some of us will ever hold ourselves to. The fact that no one forced you, you made the decision and you have vowed to stick with it. The discipline and dedication to work hard, study and research when the only reward you can envisage is a grade of either a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. These involve a combination of exercises in perseverance that requires you to leave your comfort zone and push yourself and your mental abilities beyond what you thought was humanly possible for you, and what waits on the other side of it, at least for me is a new found ability to take on new tasks and challenge myself in ways i would never have thought myself capable of doing before i started this journey.
‘Reading Week’ for this particular mature student has not been spent strictly reading, it’s been spent doing a lot of other important things, such as; catching up on sleep that I’ve missed due to waking up super early for school runs for my little one, submitting a hard copy of an essay which i’d put in a week earlier but somehow forgot to put in the hard copy, attending an interview for an internship, sorting out loads of laundry, cooking ‘happy’ meals, spending quality time bonding with my son, something I’ve really missed since the start of term in September.
I intend to spend the rest of the semester reminding myself to breathe and to have that pint with friends at the UCD clubhouse, right in the middle of the day and i urge my fellow comrades in the mature student’s ‘club’ to do the same.
Live Life!!!
©Omolola Adesina is a 3rd Year, Law with Politics Student at University College Dublin
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