Good things come to those who wait...

By Morgan Erin Purvis

I remember the first day I came to visit Oxford University like it was yesterday. Six hours on a coach from Newcastle with 30 students just like myself, bright-eyed, eager, and completely enamoured with the idea of pursuing an education at Oxford. Whether growing up watching Harry Potter or reading dark academia novels such as The Secret History, there was a part of each of us that dreamed of ancient libraries, formal hall, and legendary balls.

So, like many other 17-year-old A Level students, when applications opened in October, Oxford was my first choice. Although it wasn’t completely unexpected, it still really hurt to receive a rejection letter. I felt something die in me that day - the child who dreamed of ivy-covered walls and studying in the ‘Harry Potter Library’ all of a sudden had to come up with a new plan and learn to embrace the whole ‘rejection is redirection’ thing.

Fast forward a few years, and I have done the definition of okay-ish. On paper, I was a middling student, a mediocre BSc, and a slightly less mediocre MRes research project culminated in that little girl in the back of my brain screaming ‘what if’?? So then came the application, a more daunting process after my confidence had been in some ways destroyed all those years before. I felt such panic trying once again to sell myself to them, coupled with the ever-present existential fear of “what am I doing with my life”?

However, the process was so quick! Within two weeks, I had met my potential supervisor, interviewed, and been offered the place, all while finishing my master’s thesis and presenting my research at my university symposium. It took a while to sink in that this woman, who had once wanted this more than anything, had been offered a place to study at Oxford.

My nana told me a story that when I was six, I came home from school with a look of wonder in my eye and a smile splitting my face as I proudly proclaimed, “I’m going to be a scientist and I’m going to study at Oxford”. Fast forward to finding out I was accepted; I can safely say the little scream I let out was definitely courtesy of that six-year-old!

So here we are, 18 years later, 6 years later than we originally hoped, and I can finally say... I’m a scientist, reading for a DPhil at the University of Oxford.

All in all, the message I’m trying to convey is - the things that are meant for you will never miss you, even if they don’t happen in the way we expect.

So go on, shoot for the moon, who knows, you just might hit it!

Morgan Erin Purvis

@_morganerin_