I joined Newcastle College; enrolling into an access to higher education qualification (a level 3 qualification) - this meant I wasn't eligible for maintenance loans and since I had prior had a 40 hour-a-week job - I now had expenses including a car, board, a phone, financed items and other monthly expenses that a person takes on when working full time. This had made the decision to leave my job even harder and meant that for the next year I was not only studying a full time course; but working an average of 25 hours a week. This certainly is nothing extreme however for me at the time it felt like there was a lack of life in the work/life balance.

This paid off at the end of the academic year when I achieved my diploma with distinctions that allowed me to attend university. Initially I applied for a computing course but was informed 3 weeks before I was due to start that the course lacked enough students to go ahead and so I had the option of network security or games technology. As mentioned before my passion has always been programming and I felt the games tech course was more heavily focused on the programming and so I took the plunge and chose that course for where I would hone my skills in programming.

The first year was great; I learnt loads and really advanced my skills in 2D games programming and certainly learnt a lot on the theory side of things. I still lacked knowledge of OOP principles fully and definitely didn't produce work I would be proud of today but it built the foundation for where I am now. In my second year we learnt Unity, multiplayer games, AR/XR development and basic 3D modelling creation - this year exploded my knowledge and really allowed me to delve in deep into games dev. I started working on my first proper game over the following summer and produced work that I'm still proud of today (although I could now make numerous improvements to performance).

Finally we get to my last academic year; the one I have just completed for my bachelors in games technology. It's safe to say this has been the most stressful year so far. Not only was a lot going on personally but the wave of constant work from September to May was not something I had experienced in my prior years. The moments where I was not working on an assignment were spent studying to understand concepts needed to complete the assignment. At the start of the year I was resigned to the fact I was going end up getting a terrible overall grade for my degree... By Christmas I was convinced I wouldn't even get my degree - I distinctly remember sitting 2 days before Christmas painstakingly writing up documentation for our pre-production module which was due early January so I could stop working on Christmas day and boxing day. I felt there was no way I could continue with this burn out and see it through to the end of the year. From an outsider looking in it would seem ludicrous that a student could be burnt out when they only go to class 2 days a week whilst the majority of people work 40+ hours a week. Yet I had experience of both and this was certainly the hardest I had worked in my life so far. After Christmas I was determined to really push myself and get a good grade, I felt anything less than a first would be a disservice to everything I sacrificed and all the help I got along the way to be in this position. The end of the year came and I got my first, I succeeded in pushing myself and even got an 88 in my production assignment - the highest grade I had ever gotten during my time in education.

I'm proud of my accomplishment and know there will be many more obstacles along the way and that the work has only just started but seeing my efforts pay off has only lit a fire for me to continue pushing myself and get what I want out of life. I'm ready for whatever the next challenge may be.