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Becca

Graduation 2024

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After all of my struggles this year, I passed DE300 with a distinction grade, easily granting me first class honours for my BSc Forensic Psychology! I have achieved a distinction for every weight-bearing module at level 2 and 3!! I was thrilled with this result, and booked to attend my graduation (in my sparkly outfit I'd been working on all year). 

Since then it's been a really mixed bag - my cat Tidus became extremely unwell with FIP, and we are some 40 odd days into a very expensive treatment programme to try to beat it. I got to see Taylor Swift at the Eras Tour - twice! I became a part-time Disney princess off the back of my amdram antics, which has been really fun and magical! And then I got to go to Disneyland Paris as we surprised my friend Ami for her hen do. Finally, I attended my graduation on Friday 20th September, with my parents and my friend David. We celebrated an achievement that has been SO many years in the making, and overcoming every hurdle and obstacle I've encountered in the years since I began!

Life has been a real mixed bag, a bit of a rollercoaster, and sometimes I've wondered whether I was mad for thinking I could do any of this. I'm glad I stuck at it, and I'm considering my options for what to do next. This journey is over, but I've a feeling that this is still only the beginning...

I'll leave you with some photos of the events of the past few months, since my last post!

Disneyland Sept 2024:



Tid's progress through his FIP treatment:

Being a Disney princess! August 2024:


And my graduation photos (a little unconventional, but very me!), Sep 2024:

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Becca

A busy May!

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They say a picture tells a thousand words, so here is a little collage of things I've been up to this month!

Not pictured here, but I submitted my research project report (my final assignment of my entire degree) on 3rd May, a little earlier than the deadline because of everything I still had to do! I had my 36th birthday and went to see the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time (it was as fabulous as I remembered)!

After breaking my rib at the end of January, I was unable to do any aerial acrobatics training for 2 months. Despite the setback, I got back into training in April for my 2 competitions in early May. Alongside my main discipline of aerial hoop, these competitions marked my first time competing on the moon lyra. At South Coast Aerial Tournament on 5th May I placed 2nd with my Tomb Raider routine in the advanced hoop category, and I won the amateur open category with my moon lyra performance to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the UK Aerial Performance Championship on 12th May. UKAPC was my first ever competition in 2022 (just 10 months after I started hoop classes), and this marks my 3rd consecutive year of winning at the regional round! I was delighted with these results, especially after my injury. 

I had no time to rest after the competitions as I was straight into show week with BATS (the Basingstoke Amateur Theatrical Society) with their musical theatre roulette revue, "On With The Show" at the Haymarket Theatre! My AmDram adventures continued with a variety of musical theatre songs from some of my favourite shows, ending on a featured role as Cosette in 'One Day More' from my favourite musical, Les Miserables! The group is incredibly talented and I was thrilled that they let me get involved after I came to see their production of Joseph in November (it may have been the inspiration for my moon lyra routine!). 

Now that the BATS show is done I'm choreographing some hoop performances for ANOTHER broadway-themed concert next month, this time in Reading in aid of a local educational charity. I'll be singing and dancing in a lot of songs for this one, as well as some hoop performances at the beginning and ending of the show (it's in a beautiful barn normally used for weddings - it has a lovely high ceiling and was crying out for the portable rig to be put up inside of it!). 

I'm hoping that this will take my mind off the long wait for results... July feels absolutely forever away! I really hope that I do well on my EMA. I tried really hard and I'm proud of my little research project. I'm not sure where I'll go from here - I think I'm taking a break for the next year to figure it all out. Good luck to all waiting on their results, and if there's anything you want to do, try, experience... just go for it. You're never too old and it's never too late, as my happy little collage can attest! 

A collection of performing arts images, and a gold and silver medal

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Becca

Something New

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Edited by Rebecca Strachan, Monday, 19 Feb 2024, 17:53

After a thoroughly rotten couple of months, I'm happy to report that I performed in my first ever musical last week (Disney's The Little Mermaid), and feel much better for it! I'd never had the confidence to try amdram, but my friend Ami encouraged me to join her and audition, and I'm eternally glad I did. What a lovely little family I've found in this talented and welcoming cast 🥰 We received a great response in the theatre, and at the meet and greets afterwards! 

I mentioned previously that I chose to audition for TLM over Evita as it was a smaller part - I ended up being a maid in multiple scenes in act 2, a human princess, a fish spinning green poi for under the sea, and singing various harmonies and other bits and pieces in several other songs, in addition to my mersister songs! Arista was obviously my favourite, with a beautiful red mermaid tail and long, elaborately styled auburn hair (her hair colour was changed to suit me better, vs matching the cartoon exactly). I hope this is only the beginning of my theatrical adventures, because I've thoroughly enjoyed this experience! 


I had a freak accident about 3 weeks before the show during aerial training - the professionals I've seen believe I fractured a rib. I've had to stop my aerial acrobatics training and drop out of my March competition as a result - I'm frustrated, but perhaps this is my body forcing me to slow down as I'd definitely taken on too much this year. I'm pleased to have survived the show in spite of the injury, and that I managed most of the choreography as well.

It has been very intense, rehearsing for TLM alongside full time work, DE300, and another show I successfully auditioned for in January! The Basingstoke Amateur Theatrical Society is doing a revue in May, after my final project report is handed in. As well as being in the ensemble for songs ranging from Somebody to Love to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, I'm playing Cosette in the finale song, "One Day More" from Les Misérables - it's my favourite musical and a dream role, even if only for a song! 

I'm excited to see what projects the future might bring. In some ways I'm sad that it's taken me nearly 36 years to find the confidence to do this - but at least I'm here now. And it's given me just the boost I needed to keep on plodding with DE300. My research proposal has been approved, and once my final coding edits are accepted I can finally begin data collection. Wish me luck. Just a few more months to go.

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Becca

Final Module - DE300

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I cried when I finally got my grade for DD310. Really cried. Bawled! My last module before this began in 2018, so it had been a long old time since I had studied with the OU, and I was nervous for level 3. My TMA grades weren't *quite* as high as they usually are, so I really needed to knock it out of the park on my EMA to have any hope of a distinction overall for the year. I'm thrilled to report that I did! 😁😁😁 I've now achieved distinctions in all of level 2 and half of level 3 - I only need a 2:2 for DE300 to achieve a 1st overall!!! I'm obviously going to aim as high as I can anyway, but it's taken SO much pressure off!!

Since my last post, I've:
🥳 Passed my 3rd exam (of 4 total) for my BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis!
🥳 Rehabilitated my poor torn hip flexor!
🥳 Competed in the UK Aerial Performance Championship in April, despite the above injury (I won my regional round!)
🥳 Performed at a showcase in Newbury in April
🥳 Been on a HUGE weekend-long train-a-thon at the Manchester Aerial and Acrobatics Convention (also in April - so much for easing back in lol) and tried several new disciplines!
🥳 Performed in the Aerial Authentics Competition in Wigan in May, where I came 2nd (and brought home some chains to play on!)
🥳 Performed on aerial hoop at my own work party (nerve-wracking in front of all of my colleagues!) in June
🥳 Participated in a few more aerial photoshoots, including a paid photography workshop in a hideous heatwave!
🥳 Performed on the Moon Lyra for the first time in July, and thoroughly enjoyed it!
🥳 Finally found my way back to singing in front of people again - just at karaoke for now, but I'm putting a band together, and have the local amateur operatic society asking me to join and audition for a production of Evita!
🥳 Been formally diagnosed autistic/ADHD, after a long journey involving 2 psychiatrists and a neurocognitive psychologist.

Life has been absolutely crazy and it has been pretty overwhelming at times. But I'm really proud of everything that I've achieved, and hope I can have a really good year and finally, FINALLY graduate 👩🏻‍🎓

My first attempt at university began in September 2008. It has been such a long road to get just to this point, and I can't believe that the end is finally in sight. That I'm finally achieving things I dreamed of decades ago. Academically. Personally. Artistically. Things are coming together✨

Images of singing, dancing, and performing aerial acrobatics

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