Posted by Ksenia
In all those posts that I wrote during the holiday I mentioned lots of great things which made this summer special (I firmly believe that every summer is special in its own way) – trips to Tunisia and Ukraine, searching for a flat in London, friends, family, some free time for my hobbies (finally!) - but one thing was absent from this blog and at the same time always on my mind – the 20th of August, The Day of Release of A-Level Results, The Big Day that was the aim of all the lessons, practicals, homework and tests, revising till complete exhaustion and endless patience of our teachers.
I did not want to talk or think and even would not dear to write about it. On the 19th one of my friends wrote that whatever will happen the next day we will face it with dignity and regard it as destiny. There was nothing we could do; and I was absolutely agree with her.
When I saw in my mail box a letter with a title “Congratulations from Imperial College!” the first thing I felt was an enormous relief: I’ve done it, it’s over, I do not have to worry about it any longer. Then it was a feeling of absolute happiness and I just had to share it with someone – I run towards my mum crying out loud: “I got in! I got in!” and gave her a very strong hug. Then I ran back to my computer to see the actual results on the Edexcel website and check UCAS – I could not believe that my dream has come true until I saw the official confirmation. (Ksenia achieved an amazing six A Levels at grade A!)
Once I’ve check those two out I went straight to Facebook and Vkontakte to put “Hurrah!!!!” in my status and see how everybody else did. My happiness was not fully complete till I realized that all my friends got in where they wanted to. For the rest of the day we were all sending and receiving congratulations, speaking with friends and relatives over the phone and sharing our happiness with those who were next to us. It was a great day and it was really worth the waiting.
The next big thing was to get the Visa and it's not as easy as it may seem. I needed to receive an original Visa letter from university and the transcript of my results from Bellerbys. At first I was just waiting patiently trying to familiarize myself with the thought (a very pleasant one) that I am a new Imperial College student. But then I started getting a bit worried. The visa letter should had been sent to Brighton and then sent to me by DHL but a week had passed and still did not receive anything. Nevertheless one thing was comforting me – I knew that in my college there are people who care about me and my documents and will always be there if I need help and advice.
Here I want to thank again Ms Paula Pocock who helped me enormously in this situation – she was replying straightaway to my endless letters, answering my questions and sending me by email, post or DHL every single thing that I asked for. While Paula was away Mr. Corcut himself (an extra busy person as I have already said) did everything to help me as well. And after a few calls to Imperial and one more week of waiting I received all the documents and applied for my visa.
Two weeks and one day latter (seemed to be the same for all my friends who were doing their applications in Russia) I could go to the Embassy to collect my passport. When I was flipping over its pages it felt a little bit like when I was opening my mail box on the 20th of August. When I saw the Visa it seemed to me the most beautiful piece of art I have ever seen in my life. Then everything was really over and the new life was about to start.
Now I just have to pack my stuff and catch a plane to London. So how do I feel? I guess that a line from one of the famous songs by Garbage would describe it better then my own words: “I feel ready and yet unprepared…” So now it’s time to say goodbye to this blog. But do not think that you will get rid of me that easily! Nothing can tear me and Bellerbys College apart (I hope everybody understands that it’s a joke or maybe I got too used to English humour eventually?) so I will continue writing in the Life after Bellerbys College blog.
Hope that you will be following my adventures in the Greater London and wherever else in the world and I will try my best to make them fun to read! Once again I want to congratulate all the Bellerbys graduates who got into the universities of their dreams and wish all the present and future students of our college to do the same thing. Good luck everyone and let’s have a great year!
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