It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly a decade since I left the Grange. It’ll come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I loved my seven years on Planet Grange.
At 18 years old – and in true over-achieving Grange fashion – I had high hopes for how my life was to pan out. However, it is safe to say that I could not have anticipated the path I took. Due to a fit of university indecision and a minor (major) panic only contained by Mrs Duke and Mr Shaw, I took a gap year, opting to work in an administrative and accounting role before travelling across America with a friend from Further Maths. I then studied History at the LSE, graduating in 2014. I do not look upon my time at university fondly, but I am glad that I persevered for the full three years. If I hadn’t, I would never have developed my love of musicals by working at Les Misérables, or nurtured a passion for cinema volunteering at the Barbican.
Thanks, in part, by being a frequent visitor to the Grange after graduating and returning to Cheshire (honestly as much as the staff tried it was impossible to keep me away), I was approached to temporarily help out in Admissions and Marketing. I left my previous job as a Surveyor & Analyst to become the Admissions & Alumni Officer in 2015. This job was a blessing in disguise, becoming an outlet for my love for all things Grange – the poor 10 years olds and their unsuspecting parents didn’t know what hit them when I started talking about how great the school was – while also providing me with the perfect environment to start feeling like me again. It also ignited a love for data and spreadsheets that refuses to wane!
Ultimately, working in the place where I had felt happy and academically confident for a large chunk of my life helped to clarify exactly where I wanted my life to go. In the following years, I worked as a receptionist at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden and did a Museum Skills course at the V&A, while Mr Jones constantly encouraged me to give university another try. In 2018 I started my MSc in History at the University of Edinburgh, graduating last summer with a distinction and confident that I had finally found my calling. I loved the course and city so much that I have stayed on to do my PhD, researching the development of early British cinema across all four nations of the United Kingdom, 1909-1918.
It very much feels like I have come full circle. History was my favourite subject at school, and a trip to the battlefields in France in Year 10 first hooked me onto World War I. Since then, no other period of history could compare, and it is such a thrill now to be able to spend my days hidden in a library, working my way through microfilms and newspapers, reading anything and everything I can get my hands on. I would not have this thirst for knowledge had it not been for The Grange. While I don’t know exactly where this degree will take me – although I hope to the museums, heritage, or cinema sectors! – I know that the life-lessons, connections and strong friendships I made over a decade ago will ensure I continue to be supported and encouraged whatever the future brings.
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