My Story - continued
Looking back now, though at times I hated school and study, though many days I didn’t want to wake up or get out of bed, though my inner voice constantly chastised me for not being good enough, for not putting an extra mile in, I loved what I was doing. I loved working on an extension 2 maths problem for over an hour until finally the solution emerged from the clouds of my mind, I loved considering the relevance of Hamlet’s existentialism on my life and thinking up one hundred and one ideas for creative writing and ‘Belonging’ short stories, most of all I loved the endless research and painful redrafts of my English Extension two project. Why? Because against the ignorant consumerism I witnessed at my casual job and on the background of those incredible mountains in Tibet, the intangible world of knowledge seems the only thing worth devoting oneself to.
The idea of Oxford grew in my mind; I transformed it into a personal utopia, a world far off from both the Northern beaches and Tibet, a place where people were inspired by knowledge and ideas. At Oxford I would see for myself the inspiration of T.S Elliot, Aldous Huxely, C.S Lewis, Oscar Wilde, Will Self and Tolkien, I’d be in the place where the atom was first split and where amazing research is occurring on a daily basis.
The acceptance letter was perhaps the most humbling thing I’ve read. To discover that I may be prevented from going for purely financial reasons was heart breaking. I find it difficult to entertain the idea that education and knowledge should be bounded by wealth. I know I deserve this place and I know I would embrace it with all my heart, so I’m going to make it happen with all that I have – hard work and lots of fundraising. If you can find it in your pockets to make a donation, whatever the size, I would be eternally grateful.