 Happy New Year everybody! So it's 2019 I know. Last year of university then I'm qualified in November this year. I can't wait. I cannot tell you how excited. But anyway this vlog is going to be my top highlights from 2018 and just how amazing of a year it's been because it's taken me 10 years to get to where I am right now right here in this moment and yeah I'm proud and I'm going to share it because it keeps me motivated I'm hoping to motivate other people and get people going get people wanting to do more and get on track and stay on track with their hopes and dreams and fulfill their goals for the year ahead hopefully. But firstly I just wanted to say I know that some people might think sharing your proud moments or your achievements might seem like a little bit um what's the word I'm trying to look for might seem a bit like you're bragging or you think you're better than everybody else or anyway there's something like that but the reason why I like to share achievements and proud moments is because I've come from literally nothing in my life I failed at school I've got D's and E's and my GCSE's I've literally had nothing so to actually be 35 years old and finally achieving things in my life I'm really proud of that and I want to share it and I want to motivate and inspire somebody else and to also just say do you know what it's never too late in life if you've got a dream if you've got an ambition if you've got something you want to do go out and do it and get it and don't be ashamed or shy to share it with the world. So let's start with January so back in January I received the email of congratulations you are a high achiever which to be honest I opened it and I thought this is a joke there's not a chance I'm a high achiever where's this email come from let's check the email address blah blah blah and then actually I realised that it was a very genuine email and I was part of the high achievers recognition scheme at the Birmingham City University and this to me was like it was a massive shock and it just gave me a bit of pride and thought actually do you know what I can do this I never classed myself as a high achiever or academic at all like I said in the intro I came from nothing I didn't do well in my GCSEs I've had to fight to get into university and do 101 things my access course and everything to get those grades and everything to get into university and do this degree so for that is a massive massive achievement and I'm so proud of myself for this and hopefully I can keep on track for third year next in February I am one of the original members of the student nurse project now this project was set up by Dan Gooding and then they rounded up a few students to become leaders of this student nurse project and what we do over the student nurse project if you don't know about us go and check out the twitter page go and check out the website I'll put the links below as always so we like to provide information and educate other student nurses we like to give advice tips and help we write blogs we do polls we do tweet chats we just we get a lot of students engaging with us and also not just that but newly qualified nurses and qualified nurses so we have a whole team there that just do an amazing job and I've been I've loved being part of it we're coming up to our year anniversary now we've got over 6 000 followers on twitter and we've just done absolutely incredible I don't think any of us realise how well we would take off and it's been absolutely fantastic and this had really helped to build my leadership skills and communication skills and social media engagement as well so it's really really benefited me throughout the year and it's something that I am really really proud of and I'm really excited for the year 2019 for us the next highlight of my year was I was actually nominated for an extra mile award I know and when I received the nomination again I read it and I thought someone's having a laugh here and I had to check the email was genuine and stuff like that but I was actually nominated for it and we had an amazing event and everybody got on stage and it was fantastic I didn't win the award but you know what to be nominated was it was the best feeling in the world I thought oh that's so nice and because I do things I do a lot around university and outside of university around my nursing studies but I don't do it for any awards or anything like that I do it because I genuinely love doing it I love helping other students I love getting out there and doing more because it keeps me motivated it genuinely makes my day helping somebody else so that's why I do it and the best feeling in the world is knowing that I've helped somebody else no award is going to top that and then throughout March so in March as some of you might know I started my general practice nursing placement my favorite placement by far as you all know I absolutely love this I've logged all day about this go back and check out those vlogs if you've missed them they're they're worth watching to be honest I think and as part of that I was actually invited by Karen Story who is the lead primary nurse care for the NHS England to go to the general practice nursing conference and stand on stage with her and do a talk and this was just incredible this was just the most probably the most proudest moment of my life was being on that stage with Karen Story and I was just like wow I can't believe I'm here doing this talking in front of all of these people this is crazy so that it was one of my top moments of the whole entire year I think I've loved every single second of it it really built my public speaking skills which I'm still continuing to build on because as some of you know again I hate public speaking but I really want to do it and I have to do it so I'm going to continue to build my confidence with that push myself even further this year and hopefully get out there and do it but that is one of my top highlights and it was amazing and leading from that I was actually invited to become a general practice student nurse ambassador if you don't know what that is who they are who we are I've done a vlog and there's a Twitter page as well I'm going to post all the links below so just have a check out those and have a look if you're interested in becoming a general practice ambassador let us know because you can join another top moment of 2018 was becoming a fabulous stuff ambassador I did a little vlog on this I'm not going to say too much I'm going to post the link below go and have a look at it check all of these details out because they're all really really amazing but I am a fab ambassador now and it's fantastic to be part of such an amazing team of people all of these nurses healthcare assistants all these different people from across the NHS and different healthcare professions it's just fantastic to be amongst these amazing inspiring people that are sharing all of the amazing things that are happening out there in the NHS and I absolutely love it and as you all know if you've seen the vlog we had a massive award celebration it was a fantastic fantastic free event free food free drink oh my god it was amazing and it was 1940s it was just fantastic we had the best time and I met some amazing people that I know on Twitter but I'd never met in person before so it was just really nice to actually build those networks of people that I'd never met before and it just shows the power of social media because these opportunities I've had are because of Twitter making those connections networking with people and it's just fantastic and it showed you how powerful social media really is and another highlight from 2018 this is going to be a long vlog guys I'm really sorry because I've had so many moments that's been amazing so another moment is becoming an official vlogger for Birmingham City University so I go out to work for the university videoing and it's just been I've had the most amazing opportunities so I've been at the open days to video around the open days videoing students showing how open days run how they work what the best parts of the open days are I've done a vlog on personal statements I've done a vlog on traveling to university and how to get to university and showing actually how easy it is I got paid and I got paid to go to the Bear Grylls experience at the NEC I did a vlog on it go back and check that out because that is a good one and we had the best day ever it was that's actually one of the highlights of this vlogging experience was that day because we had such an amazing time it was free we got paid to go in we got paid for the day and what more could you ask for to what more could you ask for to go out have fun and get paid for it couldn't ask for anything better it was been amazing and then the last opportunity I got was the Christmas tree light switch on at university where I met former England cricketer Ashley Giles I'm saying his name like that because I got his name wrong and called him Ashley Cole instead of Ashley Giles that was probably the funniest moment of the year because I died inside it was horrendous and that is going to be a long running joke I think for years to come but yeah I got to interviewing I said his name wrong but after that it broke the ice and the interview went really well I think so it was really good it was a great experience and an amazing opportunity that I've had from the university to be part of that it's been fantastic another highlight from 2018 is the Snowden challenge oh my god I did a whole vlog on that go back and watch it because that's a really to me is really funny to somebody else it might not be but watching back it just makes me laugh so much because that snowden challenge was hilarious we battled storm a callon to try and climb snowden it was really funny it it also really helped that team spirit and communication between us all it was actually a fantastic day and I would not have changed that day for the world alongside that we actually did a bake sale as well so we did that for the cavill nurses trust charity and to raise money and we raised just over a thousand pounds for the charity so that was amazing a massive achievement I think so one of the biggest most memorable moments of 2018 was the international students week that I did as part of our community scope and experience with the university so I was a buddy mentor for the international students who these were brand new students that were coming to start university in the September but they two weeks ahead of that they sort of spend this week with us walk and we show them around the campus we do fun activities with them we have party we have an awards night we have food together we show them a great time for the week to get them settled in and make them feel at home within Birmingham City University because it must be really hard coming from another country settling into this to England you're not familiar with anybody you might be coming alone so that week just builds those friendships those networks communication skills all of it and it was one of the best weeks of my life honest to God I had the best time and I can't wait for next year because I'm definitely signing up for that week again it was fantastic I absolutely loved it and one of them my main highlights from this moment was when I was actually put in charge of my team and we had to do this treasure hunt and we won the treasure hunt so we had I was there like right let's get a video let's have a celebratory video I'm going to take this video I'm going to stand on the table I'm going to do this so yeah I stood on the table and we were all cheering blue blue blue blue because we were the blue team and it was just incredible but here's the video for you just as a little recap for you and show you how amazing how electric that atmosphere was so here is another top moment of 2018 do you know what you're going to be bored of the sound of my voice after this vlog I'm sorry but as you all know as part of the high achievers recognition scheme they actually won a Kate award which is pretty big it's big so as part of that we were at a few of us students were actually invited along to the award ceremony fully paid fully funded all the way to Edinburgh for the night we got stay in the hotel transport everything included it was amazing and the award ceremony itself was fantastic it was really glamorous we all got to dress up in these really posh rocks and it was just beautiful it was so nice just to relax chill out with your students your lecturers it was really really lovely I had the best time that night and just on a final note for 2018 is I would not have got by this year without the most amazing friends around me my uni friends have kept me going so so much and just these little moments that we all have together have been amazing and I've got one set group of friends who are sitting next to you we revise together we do exams together we've got a whatsapp group together and we meet up and have meals and stuff like that and they are like my favourite people in the whole entire world but I'd also have other groups of friends amongst the university that we've got traditions so myself and Pooja every single time we've got an exam or an assignment submission we have to take a video we have the funniest videos so I'm just going to do a little recap of some of the best moments with all of these people and I just want to say on this final note thank you so much to everybody thank you for following me thank you for making 2018 absolutely amazing and here's to an amazing 2019 and whatever your goals are whatever your ambitions whatever your dreams are go out there and achieve them don't let anybody stop you or anything get in your way get out there and do them because if I can do this so can you you've got this I think we'll get a good grade yes what would you rate us out of 10 11