SO... I HAVE A LAW DEGREE

As I write this I have just found out that I have achieved a 2.1 for my Law degree, but when I post this I would have known for a few days now. This was one of the days that I was really dreading. My coursework marks were very good this year but my exams were worth a much higher percentage, so really they would be the overall decider of my final grade so I was so nervous to find out what my grade would be. 

The photos show my core text books over the three years studying law, which to me looks bad enough as it is, but I also had so many more hand outs to read which saying hand outs makes it sound like a couple pages but really It was huge wads of papers every week for each seminar. Thinking back, I'm not sure how I got through some of the days; I would wake up knowing I had to do so much work all day. In my second year, we were only able to choose one module and the rest were compulsory. One of the modules was Land Law, which was pretty horrific; the text book was like reading a different language, I couldn't understand it at all and every week while I was trying to do the work for the seminar I'd end up in tears because I just felt like I didn't know anything and I knew my tutor would be randomly picking on people the whole seminar so I had to know what she was talking about. The assignments were so scary as I would initially read the questions set and think, I have absolutely no idea about any of this and then while writing I would think, am I even answering the question, or am I even talking about the right stuff? Some of my essays I was definitely surprised that the results were good for those exact reasons. 

The third year surprisingly was the best one for me. Every year had been intense so it wasn't exactly a surprise when I found myself working every day, every night, every weekend, every bank holiday and even all over Christmas. This year we were able to choose all of our modules and that made things a lot more... I'm not sure I would say enjoyable but at least I knew I was more interested in Medical law, Human Rights, Evidence etc, more so than Land Law and Contract Law *yawwwn* I'm not sure if it was because I found the modules more interesting in third year or just because I'd learned to be better but I found it so much easier to understand what I was reading. Exam time was the most strange as the previous years I'd felt so stressed, scared, sick... etc but this year it had kind of hit me that stressing so much wasn't going to help and you have to just deal with it and get on with it. Although I really wanted a 2.1, I realised that at the end of the day there's more to life than what degree classification you get, so I calmed down and just got on with revision and it worked so much better and I managed to do well in my exams and get a 2.1 overall.

I hated first and second year so much and then by third year I had just had enough of being stuck inside working while everyone else seemed to be relaxing or out doing fun things. Although I was constantly working I knew I wasn't always giving 100% so I do kind of wish I had so I would have been more likely to receive a 1st class degree, especially now that I'm looking into teaching and I would have got a £9000 bursary instead of a £4000, damn...but then again I'm not going to dwell on that, I'm still proud of my 2.1 degree. 

When I looked online this morning (Tuesday 24th), I wasn't actually very nervous. It was a week or so ago that they put the final result section on the uni website that you couldn't then access but as it was there I was freaking out, my heart was pounding when I saw it and I thought I'd never be able to actually check back on the date that they said the result would be available. When I finally was able to see my result I was home alone so couldn't even tell anyone. I text my boyfriend as he had already wished me good luck earlier that morning and gave me a little pep talk... so sweet. As I write this, hours after seeing my result I still haven't actually told anyone else, apart from a friend who was also on my course but that was only because he asked. I was so relieved when I saw the 1 (2.1) next to the 2 instead of a 2 (2.2) but apart from that I'm not really feeling much emotion. I'm not sure why as it was such a tough three years but for some reason I haven't told anyone, yet everyone else has broadcast it on facebook and is now showing photos and sharing their parents proud status'. Maybe it just hasn't sunk in? How dramatic... 

I'm so grateful to my boyfriend and sister who have been the only ones to really support me throughout the three years of tears, stress etc.  It's safe to say they both know a lot more of the law than they really want to, after listening to me ramble on about everything while trying to revise! 

Anyway, I'm off to add 'llb' to the end of my name. Congratulations if you have just found out your final degree grade whatever it is, it's a great achievement. If you did make it to the end of this I'm impressed! I now need to find a suitable dress for graduation and try to wear in and make my heels comfortable? well at least not excruciating... so really the real hardship starts now!