After leaving Pate’s in 2014, I had no idea what the next year would hold for me. I didn’t attain the A-Level grades that I needed to attend Oxford University, and so I decided to take a gap year. I didn’t have the money to spend my whole gap year travelling around the world, and so I decided to get a job. I also re-applied to Oxford, determined this time to succeed, but didn’t. I did, however, get a place at Imperial College, London to study Biology. My gap year included some travelling, because I had saved enough money to spend my summer on many fabulous holidays, including journeying around in Southern Africa seeing the wildlife and scenery.
 
Imperial was academically challenging, and my first year in halls was very enlightening, mainly due to the incredibly unprepared nature of some individuals who couldn’t even cook pasta! I was lucky in my final year to complete one module in South Africa, researching the bird species and how their abundance was likely to be affected by climate change.
 
I had planned all along, after periods of work experience, that I wanted to be a lawyer eventually. I decided to study Biology as I knew that I loved the subject, wanted to learn more, and thought that it was a good test for the strength of my ambition to be a lawyer. However, I finished my degree still with a desire to pursue a career in the law, fuelled by a period working at a criminal solicitor’s firm in London during one of my university holidays. I am really glad that I completed my Biology degree. It has given me a good talking point in interviews, and something different to bring to my career that few other people have.
 
I therefore went on to complete the Graduate Diploma in Law at the University of Law, Bristol. This was an intense but very interesting year and allowed me to develop a love and interest for the law as well as the practice of it. During this time, I completed a mooting competition, which I went on to win. These mooting competitions are pretend courts, where a particular area of law that is not yet completely clear is argued by the competitors. It is great fun, and really makes you realise whether you want to be an advocate.
 
Following this mooting competition, I decided that the path for me was to become a criminal barrister, which was a change after assuming for many years that I would be a solicitor. As this realisation was a little late, I made the decision to take another (yes…another) year out in order to gain further experience and so that I could apply for scholarships to help fund the next course (yes…more studying).
 
I am currently on my year out, working for a barrister, as well as teaching piano and working weekends at a garden centre. This means I have excellent first-hand experience in many areas of law, going to court and conferences, and am able to gain experience that will assist me greatly in my future studies and career.