<div class="fr-view"><p><strong>The following piece was awarded First Prize in the OU Students Association Welcome Week Writing Competition for Welcome Week 2024 (28 Sept &ndash; 6 Oct). The author is Sarah, who lives in Middlesbrough and is studying MSC<span data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody"> ;Psychology .</span></strong></p>
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<p><span data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody">You&rsquo;re just a mum now, that&rsquo;s all you are. Those beautiful little people you created are now your soul. All of you. Your name replaced with &hellip;mum, stored in a phone with a million other play dates. Your emails plagued with requests for another £;1 coin, a costume last minute, 20,000 toilet roll middles. The school runs, being the nurse, the teacher, the referee. You blink and six years have gone by and that &lsquo;few months&rsquo; you expected of not putting yourself even 17th let alone first has expanded and continued. You don&rsquo;t really know who &lsquo;you&rsquo; is beyond the snot wiping and cuddles. So you start to explore the idea, and most things seem impossible, to continue to be &lsquo;Mum&rsquo; and work enough to feed and clothe your little gremlins is a juggling act a clown couldn&rsquo;t maintain. Then you find something you can do that with some acrobatic and flexing that brings just a small amount of &lsquo;you&rsquo; back! My children will always be my world but my masters course has just opened up my universe to be that little bit bigger.</span></p>
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