My journey to becoming a midwifery student

I am just a lost girl finding my way in the world! I currently work for West Midlands Ambulance Service as a 111 and a 999 Call Assessor, and I am doing an Access course for Midwifery with the hopes of getting into University in September 2021.

What is a lost girl? A lost girl is me. I am the walking, talking example of a lost girl. I have never had a ‘calling’ in life, you know, when people are meant to do something with their life or when they have ambitions from a young age, I just didn’t have that. Since leaving school, I went straight to college to study Hairdressing (I believe I did this to try and make my Nan proud as she knew I had an artistic flare) but I just didn’t feel passionate about it. Still, I stuck it out and finished my level 2.

Following this, I applied to a different college to study Animal Management, because I love animals. I loved this college and the theory behind it such as anatomy/zoological theory, but again, it wasn’t my calling, I didn’t have a burning rage to continue. Due to my artistic attributes, I changed college to study Art and design, again I loved it but I couldn’t imagine myself having a career in Art. Can you see a pattern here? This is the pattern of a lost girl. This is normal for most people though, so if you have a pattern like mine, do not worry, life isn’t written down on a notebook for us to follow. We are expected to know what we want to do in life, however it’s not easy to figure out life and finding your calling is even harder to discover, but it will come, like mine did.

Following my Level 3 in Art, I decided I needed more life skills and to become more practical. I took the plunge to apply for a Job at West Midlands Ambulance Service to be a 111 Call Assessor. Following a daunting application, tests and interviews, I got the job! I was thrilled to be starting a career within the NHS and to gain skills. I had a months training course for the job and took calls for 111 for 5 months and then came COVID-19. The demand increased on the service as a whole and 999 Call Assessors were really struggling, as not as many people are trained to take 999 calls. This was when I made the decision to take further training to take 999 calls as well, to help with the demand pressures and to help staff, and have done this ever since.

Since a young age I have always been fascinated by birth and the role of the midwife in all settings. When my cousin fell pregnant with her daughter Eloise, I wanted to get as stuck in as I possibly could, for example, going to her scans, appointments and building a rapport with the Midwives, asking lots of questions and getting advice! I got excellent GCSE results but when I left school, I didn’t have any intention of going to university at that time and I didn’t have the confidence to consider a career in Midwifery unfortunately. My life went down a different path but now I am so ready to pursue a career in something I really enjoy learning about and studying. I have two interviews for university coming up and all being well I will start university in September 2021!

The job itself has given me so much confidence and enabled me to gain attributes such as communication skills, working as part of a team effectively, maintaining confidentiality, be supportive and compassionate and many more important skills. As much as this job has helped me, I still feel it’s not my forever job. This job has now enabled me to have the confidence to do an Access Course in Midwifery and take the big leap into applying for university!

I have watched many documentaries, read many books and I feel so inspired and excited. “A hero is someone who voluntarily walks into the unknown” – Tom Hanks, my favourite quote by an amazing man, really explains that the biggest block to your own growth is fear and the things you fear the most are things where you are not sure of the outcome. If you allow fear to get in the way, you will never grow. You must allow yourself to shine! My advice to anyone thinking about applying to university or even wanting a new job, is to find what you love and what the world needs, then combine them, don’t be afraid if you feel lost you will find your way, things will get better and finally, good luck x