 Hi everyone and welcome back to another vlog. Thank you so much for tuning in. As always, if you haven't already subscribed, give me a subscribe. If you hit the bell, you will get a little notification every time I post if that's what you want. If not, don't panic, don't sweat it. Thanks for tuning in anyway. As you can see, I'm wearing my Birmingham City University t-shirt because I'm going to tell you a little update. It's really exciting. I'm hoping it's going to motivate you to get to the end of your degree, fingers crossed. But I thought I would wear my t-shirt with pride to share this information. So I'm going to get straight to it because I'm too excited and I need to share this with you. But I have just finally got my official confirmation of my classification of my degree and it was a first. I got my first guys. So as some of you knew, in first year, I was on the ball. I was getting such high marks, getting 80s, 90s, second year, my grades dropped a bit and I thought I'm never going to get my first. There's a vlog actually where I was literally crying because I was like, I'm never going to get my first. I'm so beat up. I'm a terrible person. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, it's horrendous. How silly was I? And that's the way it sort of stayed and I was accepting that I wasn't going to get a first. I thought there's no way I'm going to get a first now. My grades have already fallen. Oh my god. And luckily I managed to get good enough grades towards the end. There was the one or two grades that sort of slacked a little bit, but all the rest of my grades sort of lifted up a bit. So I was really, really chuffed. And then when I worked out myself to get my classification, I thought, I don't know if I'm going to get my first. And I didn't know if it was right or not. You sort of work it out and you think, oh, I don't know about this. So to get a first degree classification, you need an average of 70% and above in all of your grades. The way our university works it out is that they take one best mark from second year and then three best marks from third year. They add them all up, divide them and then give you your overall classification. And I just made it guys. However, they have changed that now and now to work out the classification. I don't know if that's at every university, but Birmingham City University, I know this is the way that they're doing it. So they will get all of your second year grades together, add them all up and work out 40%, I think it is. And then third year, they add them all up again, and then they work out 60%. And then they add those two numbers together to get your overall grade for the whole degree, if that makes sense. I don't know how they do it, but that's what they do. It's too much maths for my brain. I'm really, really sorry. Anyway, this first for me is just a massive, massive achievement. I never thought I would ever, ever get a first. I never dreamed I would ever even be at university, let alone get a first degree because my confidence, my self-esteem and everything was so low. I was put off for so many years. So to be qualifying as a mature student, I'm 36 now guys. And to get a first is amazing. And I'm just going to just go into a little bit of a story time. I'm really sorry if you're bored already. Don't watch this video. But if you want to be hopefully inspired and motivated to keep going and to follow your dreams, keep watching this video because hopefully I'm going to inspire you. So back in 2000, when I was doing my GCSEs, I left with barely any GCSEs. I got D's and E's in my maths English science, the ones that you really, really, really need. I barely got anything. So I couldn't go on and do my A levels. I wasn't even thinking about university because I thought a failure. So I left. I worked in hospitality originally. I had no self-worth, no self-esteem, no ambition in life at all. And I was just going to plod along and I was happy doing that until actually a big shout out to my friend Ian. Ian was my very, very first inspiration. I have to thank him in this video because if it wasn't for Ian, I may never have even thought about going into nursing and trying nursing. And basically I had this conversation with him and I thought, I don't know what to do with my life. This was back in 2005, the beginning of 2005. And I was working in hospitality. I said, I'm bored. I don't know what I want to do. I don't know where I should be in life. I don't know what I should be doing. And he said, Claire, I can see you as a nurse. I was like, what? Me, a nurse? No. Don't be silly. Because in my head, I've said this many times in previous vlogs. In my head, I saw nursing as such a high profession. Not that it's not because it is a high profession. I still value nursing as that high profession. And I see that as the way it is. But I didn't think that was me because my confidence was so on the floor. I was like, I can't be that person. I can't be this amazing nurse that I see everybody else doing. That's, I just don't think about it. However, I thought, but maybe he's onto something because I do genuinely care about other people. I've always been that sort of person. I remember looking after animals as a child. Like I bring home pigeons with broken wings because I care so much about them and I didn't want them to suffer. And that's always the way that I've been. So I thought, actually, maybe let's just try it. So I looked into it and something come up about working in a care home for the elderly. I thought, okay, that sounds nice. I could do that. So I applied for a job. I got the job at the care home. This was in 2005. And I fell in love. I fell in love with nursing. I thought, oh my God, we didn't have nurses there. It was a little residential home. But I fell in love with those fundamentals that nurses give, the care, the compassion, the courage, the commitment, all of the six C's in one I learned. I learned the true value of what it meant to care and nurse somebody. I'm not talking about clinical skills and the anatomy and physiology and all of that. But I picked up skills from that care home that I still use today that are valued so, so much and that made me fall in love with real nursing. And we used to get the district nurses come and I would always offer to sit with the district nurses and watch what they were doing and doing the wounds and things like that. And I'd be like, this is amazing. Like you are amazing. I want to be you. I want to be able to help someone even more than help someone now. I want to have that knowledge base. I want to just do more and be more. So I went and I started doing my NVQs. I did my meds management. So as a healthcare assistant, I was able to give medications. Because I had no GCSEs, I had to go and do my literacy and numeracy, which I did level one and two. And as time went on, I sort of built up that knowledge base, the work experience. I got my NVQs behind me. I had enough to apply then for the diploma, because back then it was a diploma only course. However, they took away the diploma and made the nursing a degree only course. And I was like, there's no way I can do a degree. There's no way at all ever I can do a degree. Because I had it, I don't know why I had it in my head that I couldn't do it because I'd failed so much at my GCSEs. And I just had that lack of confidence that I couldn't do a degree. I always heard degrees as being really hard. I thought about 10,000 words as a dissertation. I thought I'm never going to be able to write that. That's not me. I'm not this sort of person that would ever do that. And I was really put off by it. However, I wanted to do it. I wanted to be a nurse. So I thought I'm going to try. So I went and I did the access course in 2011, finished that in 2012, applied for the nursing degree. And I got in, thank God, I actually got in. So I started my nursing back in 2012. I know. So in 2012, I managed a few months of my nursing degree. And then some really unfortunate personal life circumstances happened where I was pretty much made homeless by somebody, unfortunately, who is the next person that I would like to thank. Because I'm not bitter about that because do you know what? I needed that. I needed that to grow. I needed that to go away, develop myself personally. If I had qualified in back then 2012, 2015, I wouldn't be who I am today. I wouldn't, I don't think I would be the nurse I am today. And the nurse I am today is exactly where I want to be. So I'm really, really thankful to that person. However, I was pretty much made homeless. I had nowhere to go. I won't go into too many details about it, but I had to withdraw from the course. I had to move away. The only place I could move was back in with my mom. I was in Birmingham at the time at Birmingham City University. I had to withdraw and moved to Milton Keynes. Anyway, that unfortunately happened. So again, I got down about it. I got a completely different job because I was so down about it. I went back to hospitality. I did some waitressing remembered how much I hated it. I'm so sorry to anyone that's a waitress. I've said this before, you're amazing. I can't do it though. So I went back into a care home where again, I love life. So yeah, so and then ever since then, I tried to get back into nursing. I had so many failed interviews. I had knockbacks from everybody. Nobody wanted to, in my mind, I'm sure that wasn't the case. I probably did something wrong in the interview or whatever. But in my mind, because I disclosed that I had to withdraw before, I think that went against me. Or in my mind, that's how I thought. So again, I beat myself up about that a lot. But I probably said some really stupid things in my interviews while I wasn't confident at all. I had a really massive knock. So I had a few knockbacks before I finally moved back to Birmingham, got my life in order. And I applied for the nursing degree in January 2017, which takes me to today. And do you know what? I failed my interview. I failed two interviews before I got accepted to Birmingham City University. Trust me, if you've got an interview for any university, congratulations, because there's so many people out there that haven't got an interview. So you need to be proud of yourself for that first step. Well done. Just a massive well done to you. I thought I would just put that in there. So I went on to the degree, as you all know, because I'm here and I've been vlogging about it ever since the beginning of time. And along the way, I have had a lot of down moments, especially in my second year. I had a relationship breakup. I had to move house. Then my mum passed away. And do you know what? I carried on. I didn't let anything stop me. I didn't defer anything. I thought, do you know what? I put all of that emotion, all of that energy and all of that motivation and determination into my degree, because I remembered what happened last time when I had to withdraw and how to fail things and I didn't get back into university. That kept me going. And I thought, do you know what? I can't control that situation. Nothing is going to bring my mum back. Me delaying assignments, me delaying exams, me taking time out of placement. Nothing is going to bring her back. And I'm really, really sorry if I offend anyone by saying that. This is my own personal view, my own life and my own thoughts and process. And I thought, I need to throw myself into nursing and I need to make these people proud. I need to make my family proud and that's what I've done. So today, I'm at the end and it's all so worth it. Here we go, guys. This bit is the killer. But I'm just, I just wanted to share my journey because it's not been easy. It's been a really long journey. I've had some bumps along the way, I've had everything I think thrown at me that probably could have been thrown at me. But I don't regret it. I don't regret anything. I don't regret any of my journey because I needed that. I needed that to grow and like I said, I wouldn't be the nurse I am today without all of that. And I'm a far better nurse and far stronger, far more resilient than I've ever been in my life and so motivated and determined. I want this so, so much. But my point is, do you know what? If I can do this, so can you. If I can get no GCSEs and do this and get a first at the end of it, so can you. Don't let anything stop you from your dreams. Don't let anything stop you from achieving anything in your life. You have to go for it. Don't think about anything else. Think about yourself. Think about your own time, your own self-worth, your own confidence. Forget the unconfidence. Push it away and believe that you can do this, that you're amazing and these things happen in life. It's just life and it's horrible. It's hard. It's harsh as it sounds. It is life. You have to overcome it. You have to keep going. You have to be that person that fails but gets back up. There's that quote. You know, you get knocked down seven times. You stand up that eighth time and I'm standing here today as proof that it works. You have to keep going. You have to follow your dreams, guys. Forget everything else. Forget any negativity. Keep going. And this is the reason why I'm so motivated. I've been so positive. I only share positive things because do you know what? I've had it all. I've had all the rubbish. I've had all... If you knew me back in 2012, you would have seen the horrendous Facebook stages that I put, how darn I was, how beat up I was. I'm so positive and motivated now because I've been through it and I'm here, motivated more than ever, achieving my dream and you can too. Only downside to all of this is I do wish that my family were here to see it because they're not. But I know they will be wherever they are looking down and I know that they'll be so so proud of everything. I've done this on my own. I've done this off my own back without input from family, without help from anybody and I've gotten to where I am for me, not just for other people, for me and my own personal achievements and it's just, it's really sad that they're not here to see that but I know that they're up there somewhere looking down on me and I know that they'll be so proud today. My Nan and my mum, my Nan would be so proud if she knew what I'd achieved. But the good news is my dad's still about, just about hanging on in there and he's proud and it's nice to see him proud and share how proud he is basically and he's going to be at my graduation in July. I think it's July, June or July, one of the two but that will be the emotional day, oh my god. I'm going to try and vlog that for you guys okay. I'm going to, I don't know if it's ever been done before but I am going to vlog when I'm there. I don't know if I'm allowed to take my phone on stage but if I can I'm going to be there like, Lenny! Whether they'll let me do that, I don't know but I'm going to give it a go. I've got you haven't I? I've got you, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be on stage with Lenny Henry, get my first degree honours, hello. I'm going to vlog out of it guys. Anyway, shake off the emotions, I'm sorry it's emotional, I'm okay now, I've had my little thing and I can move on. So yeah, I'm going to end the vlog here because I think I've talked for way too long but I really, really hope, I don't share this for people to go, oh I'm sorry, oh congratulations you're amazing, you're doing amazing. I don't say, I don't do these vlogs, I don't share posts and things for people to say that, it makes me feel really uncomfortable but I do it because I want to show that you can do it. I want to show how I hopefully want to inspire you, I hopefully want to motivate you to keep going because I know how hard nursing is, I know how tough it is to be there on placement when you don't like a particular placement or you're really struggling with exams and assignments, everything's getting you down, you're saying oh I can't do this, I'm hoping that this vlog is going to get you going again to hopefully get you motivated because I swear to God to get here at the end when you get that classification, whatever classification you get to, one, two, two, three, a first, whatever you get you should be proud because this degree's hard and it really is a hard degree so be proud and to get to that point at the end where you've finished, you know you've passed everything is just amazing, I hope you're having an amazing week, keep going, keep motivated and keep focused, come on you've got this!