From Me, to Me... With Love

Dear me,

It’s 2017. Gran’s gone. The woman who raised you — who made the world feel safe and made you feel like you mattered — is suddenly no longer here. And with her goes your sense of direction. The next couple of years are a fog of grief, silence, and survival.

Then in early 2019, you break. Fully. Everything falls apart, and you don’t see a way forward.

But later that same year, you give college one last shot. You don’t feel smart enough. You don’t feel like you belong. But you show up anyway — quietly, nervously, bravely. And that small step becomes the turning point.

You make it through college. You get into university. And slowly, you start finding your place. You create a Disabled Students Society. You help shape the university’s disability audit. You don’t just take up space — you help reshape it for those who come after you.

Then 2024 arrives — and it changes everything.

You graduate with First Class Honours. That would be enough. But the same week, you challenge the McGlashan Trust to remove their age cap on postgraduate funding. And you win. Because care doesn’t end at 30 — and you made them see that. That change is what allows you to access your Master’s — and it opens the door for so many others who thought they were too late.

Then, on graduation day, you’re named the Most EDI-Focused Event Student in the UK by AEME. You — the care-experienced kid who nearly walked away before it ever started — are now leading the field in inclusion. You don’t just show up. You show others what’s possible.

You start your Master’s, and once again, you build. You create a new Events Society — not because you had to, but because you needed it. You saw how postgrads were often left out, so you created regular socials and built a space where people could feel seen. Your peers noticed. They nominated you for an award, and you received special recognition — not for ticking a box, but for making people feel like they mattered.

And behind all the degrees and achievements, you were constantly giving your time. Pride events. Arts festivals. Sporting events. Conferences. Club nights. University balls. You’ve done it all. You didn’t just find your passion — you lived it.

You helped bring TEDx to campus. You weren’t on the stage — you didn’t need to be. You helped build it. You gave others a platform. And that, more than anything, shows the kind of leader you’ve become.

Now it’s 2025. You’re about to submit your Master’s dissertation. And for the first time since losing Gran, you finally feel like you know who you are.

You didn’t just survive.
You didn’t just succeed.
You became someone she would be so proud of.

And you're just getting started.

With love, pride, and power,
Me x