You know, I’m always on the go.
I’ve got four children.
It can get quite interesting;
it can get stressful.
On Sunday, we go to church.
Church has become
very much a part of our lives.
It’s given us a social life.
When we get back from church,
we do three sets of washing.
We get homework out of the way.
We get violin practice out of the way.
Sometimes, you just need somewhere
to just go and be you,
and have a quiet moment.
And my garden is my sanctuary window.
Sometimes, I just sit there,
you know, and listen to
the birds and think how far I’ve come,
you know, despite all the odds.
I’m currently studying
children’s literature
and it’s my final year of studying.
The project I did
is part of my distance learning course.
It’s about children’s literature, say, from
the beginning of when people started
to write for children,
and how it’s evolved
over the years.
You choose a question,
and then you sort of bring
together all the assignments
that you’ve done.
The length of the project is
different from
the normal assignments:
it’s twice the normal assignments.
It’s involved a lot of online research,
a lot of group discussions, and
media research, which
I find difficult.
You get placed within a group,
and then you choose
a book, and then you discuss it.
If you choose a book that’s been made into
a film, you also
have to look at the film;
look at the reviews
and the criticisms it’s had,
and then you compare and contrast it.
I did online research on various criticisms,
but the majority of it was writing:
I did a lot of writing.
You have an introduction.
You have your body and the conclusion.
For me, it was a big challenge.
Fortunately for me, my group
were very supportive.
With an assignment sometimes,
I can sit there in one day and write it.
In writing a project,
you’ve got enough time to do it.
You get somebody to read it for you
to see that it makes sense
and I don’t often get to do
that with my assignments.
I suffer from sickle cell disease:
it’s a genetic illness,
so it constantly makes me anaemic.
I haven’t got an immune system
because of that,
so I tend to spend a fair bit of
time in hospital.
Distance learning has been
good for me because it has
reduced that travelling
to university, and
your disability shouldn’t limit you.
So, you’re here to dictate to that
disability and not the other way around.
Currently, I work as a teaching assistant.
On a daily basis,
my job is very interesting;
no one day is the same.
I do love my job.
I think the children bring
the best out of
me, and hopefully I bring
the best out of them as well.
After I’ve graduated, I hope
to train as a primary school teacher,
come out as a professional
despite all my difficulties,
and make my children proud.
Go the distance.
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