Rang my surgery on Monday morning expecting the usual nonsense of being told to call back at 8am tomorrow or wait three weeks for a telephone triage. Instead the receptionist just said they had a slot on Thursday afternoon and booked me in straightaway.

I actually had to ask her to repeat it because I thought I'd misheard. No interrogation about what was wrong, no being made to feel like I was wasting everyone's time, just a normal appointment like it used to be years ago.

Turned up on Thursday, barely any wait, saw the doctor for a proper ten minutes, got sorted. The whole thing felt almost surreal. I keep waiting for them to ring and say it was a mistake and I need to reapply through some new online portal that doesn't work.

Feels like I've won the lottery but better because this actually happened. My faith in the system has gone up about two percent, which for me is massive progress.

Title says it all, really, but for context…

I started a degree in Maths with the OU at the beginning of 2020, so…Yeah, that was some interesting timing when the pandemic hit, but it at least gave me something to focus on that wasn’t work. I’ve undergone a house move (I now live on my own), two job changes, a study break due to the module I wanted not being available on the January start (which ended up being a blessing in disguise given that it coincided with one of my job changes - I just didn’t have any energy to do anything when I got home each day), some mental health issues, the loss of my grandfather in September at the start of my final set of modules, a kidney stone back in November…and I’ve come out of it all with a really good result. Celebrating with some champagne tonight, because - quite frankly - I think I’ve earned it.