10 stressful days

To add to the already increasing stress and pressure, about two weeks before she got her results she had an email from Southampton University saying that her offer would be difficult because they were missing a DBS form. This is apparently the new criminal record check now known as a disclosure and barring service and we hadn’t done it. After a few phone calls and lots of googling a form was finally posted to us. 

The next few days were quite stressful leading up to the Wednesday night and shifted up to another gear initially as she was told she would have an email from UCAS either congratulating her or expressing their sorrow that she didn’t get a place. This didn’t happen.

Then it was announced on Twitter that emails would not be sent until 8am. It was a long night and I didn’t get a lot of sleep! By 5am I was wide awake and talking to my 18 year old daughter. The next few hours were some of slowest ever!

By 8 o’clock my stress levels were at an all time high!

Then came the email which said they couldn’t confirm her place at Southampton University.

My daughter at this point went into meltdown! She screamed that she hadn’t got in and I totally understand her reaction, but the reality is that if you hadn’t got in they would have told her and on reading the email the one thing that stood out was the fact that there was information missing from her application that was causing a problem. It also mentioned the disclosure and barring form. Still there was no calming her down so I said your results will give you your answer. 

I wasn’t planning on going to the school for her results as her sister was taking her which was fine, but then she asked me to go with her so I said I’d meet her there.

The results were available from 8.30am so we didn’t have long to wait. She went off with some friends to collect her results and within 10 minutes she rang me to say her grades were A, A, B. More than enough to have her place at university as she only needed A, B, B, so a fantastic result and I have to admit found it totally overwhelming and had a lot of tears of joy!

When she came back out I have her a huge hug and more tears of pure pride poured out!

She’d worked so hard and got what she deserved! It was an incredibly emotional moment. 

I got her to ring the university to confirm what was missing and as I suspected it was the DBS form. We had only received this the day before so it was vital that it was filled out quickly and sent to them so her place could be confirmed. 

After some words and trying to get a sense of urgency we finally posted them on Thursday night and on Friday some of her finance needed sorting out as they required more information. This was all collated on the weekend and sent on the Monday. 

On the Monday we rang the university to confirm they had received the DBS form, but unfortually at the time they couldn’t find it.

My daughter then had a phone call from a different department saying they had the form. It was all very stressful! We finally got them to send it onto the right department internally and thankfully they were in receipt of the form on the Tuesday so all we had to do now was play the waiting game!

Finally on Thursday, one week after her results, she had the email confirming her place at Southampton University to study nursing (child nursing). I felt relieved and all the stress had gone! 

What have I learnt from the whole experience?

I’m not sure to be honest other than I fell out with my daughter far too many times in 10 days and for that I’m sorry! It’s just that I love and care about her.

I just needed to make sure everything was sorted out and there were no more mistakes. 

She is going to university of Southampton and I am so very proud and happy for her.

This journey started last year on our road trips to various universities for interviews and it has had a successful end!

Well done! I hope you achieve your dreams and enjoy the next three years of your life!