Amy's story

"I remember on an open day I was told that there’s a Harry Potter society and I was just like, yep, I’m going to Essex."

Since I started my A-levels I’ve known that I want to do something with translation. At  A-level we were introduced to translation and we were doing a lot of it for exams and everything. I sometimes struggle with what to say, the content, so I much prefer translation because the ‘what to say’ is there, you just need to say it in that language.

The MLang here means that my final year will be studying translation, the Masters in translation. And when I’m on my year abroad next year in Grenada, Spain I’ll study translation while I’m out there instead of studying the cultural stuff. I prefer the language side rather than the culture. When I was looking at the courses specifically I really liked that my course here studies the actual languages. So I get to study French, Spanish and Italian, which is what I’m studying this year, so I get to study all of that instead of studying just one language and then culture with that language. The class structure in my course helps me as well. So we don’t have lectures, we have classes. They’re specific for language. So you have one class on grammar, one for speaking, one for listening – that helps. I like knowing the structure, and I love grammar lessons. I’m a real nerd.

I’m very proud of my little sister, Abi – well I say little, she’s 17. She’s amazing, I love her. She’s the most important person in my life. She’s doing a Spanish A-level as well, like me, but she wants to go into journalism. She’s very smart and kind and very funny, she makes me laugh. Me and my sister are very close. She has looked at Essex, but she’s not sure if she even wants to go to uni, she’s looking at everything.

Talking about Essex makes me smile. I’m trying to convince some of my sister’s friends to come here – I could talk about it forever. I’m so glad I’m here, and I’m a lot more confident now than I used to be. I’ve grown as a person, I know everyone says that but I really have and it was definitely the right move for me.

I had looked at other universities before but not here. I’d actually gone to Leicester and I lasted a week before I came home. I didn’t like it. So here, I was still struggling for the first week or so, but once I got settled in I loved it. It’s just everything, I love it. I think the societies here are a big part of the experience. Some other unis don’t have as many societies, and some of my friends here aren’t in a society and I’m just like ‘why?! I’m in the Harry Potter society and Show Choir society. I remember on an open day I was told that there’s a Harry Potter society and I was just like, yep, I’m going to Essex. I think the societies have definitely helped me. I met one of my best friends at the Harry Potter society and then we both joined the Show Choir society, and now she’s my flatmate this year – all thanks to societies. I think Essex is really good for that – societies, sports clubs and everything. The societies helped massively at the beginning when I was still quite shy and quite nervous about being here. They’re such an easy place to make friends and a relaxed space.

There’s a quote from A Cinderella Story that I really like; ‘never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game’. I feel like that’s a good thing to remember. A lot of the time I will stop something because I am too scared, but I need to at least try it and give it a go.