John Seager's 30 for 30: Day 13

A Cunning look back of 30 days which have changed my life over the past 30 years

Day 13:  25^th November 2003 – Graduation time

Evening all,

Our family have never done well when it came to being in school.

Having a sister who couldn’t be bothered to do well at school and in her exams and a brother, who couldn’t do well in school and in his exams because of his problems with Aspergers Syndrome, this meant that i was the only one flying the flag for the family as i ventured off to study at university.

The university i had chosen was going to be Thames Valley University in Ealing, west London. I was initially going to go to Lincolnshire and Humberside University but because i got better grades from my final year at fulston manor, i got into a university closer to home. But yet again my life at University was a real struggle but compared to my time at SCC and Fulston it was a different struggle.

For the first 2 years, i did have a number of problems writing assignments. I didn’t get the help i needed and i was put for in a number of classes from the year below in order to get me to pass. There was also a time where my assignment was disqualified as unknown by myself, i had plagiarised some words from a book i was using to help me to study.

After getting though those two difficult years, it got even worse as halfway through my final year, my parents decided to split up. This was devastating to me both academically and professionally. But i managed to pull myself together and get on with what i need to do. On my final day in July, we were needed to go into the university to find out whether or not we will be at the graduation ceremony.  After getting there, i found out that by the skin of my teeth, i have graduated from University.

They joy on my face was not one of celebration but one of relief. I have been though a lot just to graduate from university. There were a few beers on the way back to Kent and celebrations continued when i got home when my dad – who was going through a lot at the time – broke open the champagne and there was much rejoicing.

By the time of the graduation ceremony, which was being held on the 25^th November 2003, i was working as a potwash/chef at the time but my culinary skills were not up to scratch and i nearly sliced my thumb off. So i had a massive thumb bandage at the time of the ceremony, which was not nice to have.

On the day itself, it was really nice to see my mum, who had moved out a few months before i graduated. She said she was proud of me for what i did and it was really emotional for me when she said that.

A group picture with some of my university friends 

It was also a nice chance to see my uni friends again. I still keep in touch them today on various social network sites.  Some of the memories i still have from that day from people who i knew from my time at uni and i hope to find them on the social sites soon.

The main picture of the day - now pride of place in my living room.

Once i got the main pictures back from the photo company, i added them to the t-shirt and the video i have from that day. It was a special day for more than one reason.