Apparently 2026 is the new 2016

So there’s a new social media trend about 2026 being the new 2016 and it started me thinking about 2016 and then realising that the Tour Guiding journey really started for me in 2016.

2016 I had a part time job in BHS and a two-year-old. The BHS job was only supposed to be temporary after I had shut my shop but with a toddler and bills to pay I had been there about three years. 2016 if you’ll remember wasn’t a great year for Sir Philip Green and BHS shut its doors permanently in July after eighty-eight years trading (making me feel slightly better about my own retail failure!)

So I started an access course with the Open University. As I had been made redundant it didn’t cost me anything and in January 2017 I started a BA in Humanities, initially English and History but eventually settling on Classical Studies about halfway through. The death of my father,  COVID, life etc continued and I got another part time job but I finally graduated in July of 2023 with a First Class Honours Degree in Classical Studies and (because apparently I hadn’t done enough studying!) started an OCN Tour Guiding Course in Belfast Met in January 2024.

Life eh? You never know where it will take you in ten years

2016 mostly consisted of this

Graduation at Croke Park in 2023