Well I guess I'll be writing in this blog more than I have hitherto as I have now been accepted to study for a PhD at the University of Exeter. This is basically a dream come true for me. The university has the country's highest rated English department for research (which is what I'll be doing of course!), and my supervisors are both experts on Plath who have each published important works about her. Plus the university is in the county that Sylvia Plath called home for a significant amount of time and in which she wrote her best work.
As I work full time teaching, I do have concerns about how I will find the time to research, but I am hoping I can keep things ticking over during term time and work hard during the holidays. I may have to scale back a few other things. For example, I volunteer as a governor at school and also volunteer to attend many residential trips and fund raising events. I enjoy all of them, something will have to go.
Overall, I feel delighted and proud to have been accepted. I can't quite believe I have been offered a place to study for the highest possible degree in one of the country's very best English departments. I hope I'm up to it. It's been seven years since I completed my master's and since then I've been teaching young children. It's quite weird switching from explaining things in the simplest terms possible so that a child can understand to thinking about things as deeply as possible so that it can push the boundaries of human knowledge.
I start in January and am just reading as much as I can in preparation. Can't wait to get started.
