One year on...
On the 19th July 2020, it was one year since I graduated from university!
This last year has flown by so quickly and it has its ups and, unfortunately, some downs.
After graduation, I moved to Manchester. It is a city I love, my partner had found a job and we had friends there. I was all set for this to be the start of my next wonderful chapter.
From the first night in our new house, we, unfortunately, knew that wasn't going to be the case. The place just wasn't gelling with me or my partner. The neighbours were loud and the walls were thin. I pushed myself to exhaustion painting walls, cleaning, trying to make it 'perfect' but we had both known from the start, it was never going to be home.
Along with this, I could not find a job and it was really disheartening.
When I finished university I left on such a high. My third year had been the most amazing year and I left feeling confident, about my work, about myself and for the first time, possibly ever, I had a real sense of who I was.
As my time in Manchester came to an untimely end, I had lost a lot of that.
One of the saving graces for my creativity was that I attended the Write Like A Grrrl MCR writing course, with Jane Claire Bradley.
My creativity had an outlet! It wasn't the one I'd studied for three years, but I loved it and I felt that, at times, I was creating work which I liked. Even better I still had enough confidence to share this work.
I began sending writing submissions out into the world. I got rejected quite a lot but it was okay! It happened to everyone! I also began sharing my poetry on my Instagram and that was a big sign that the confidence I'd gained at university hadn't fully gone as a lot of prose/poetry was personal and to put in out into the world made me feel very vulnerable at times.
Along with this I also finished the first draft of a novel (yes, a novel!), which I began during Write Like A Grrrl. This was a milestone I had never, ever saw myself making.
So, one year on - I am still looking for a job, I continue, as we all do, to persevere through COVID, I'm writing, I'm editing a novel and I've picked up my camera again.
Life is not the perfect fairytale I was expecting from my move to Manchester, but I am here and things are getting better.
I'm just taking it one day at a time.
https://www.instagram.com/beckyhandleyart/?hl=en
https://janeclairebradley.com/
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