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By Beatrice Bergman from the 2015/16 Intake

There’s Only So Many Lakes One Can Swim

A guy named Harry once told me, after us having a semi deep discussion about life: there’s only so many lakes one can swim in.
At the time he really agitated me, as he was actually talking about swimming in real lakes, not metaphorical ones.
A couple of days ago I saw a picture of him standing by one of those lakes he was talking about. He was walking away from it, and I remembered for a second, lying in the sun snapping a picture of him.
This was about two years ago, but now, I finally understand what he was talking about.

After working 70 hours a week since March in a soul sucking place with rarely any days off, I was about to give in. Give up my all of my dreams and sign in to the nearest mental institution
– Plan B, as I like to call it.
I was thinking about SCA and my future in advertising, and it terrified me.
Am I good enough? And more importantly, will I become good enough?

Email after email from Marc and Honor, with exciting updates and news.
The scholarship competitions that I didn’t have any physical time or energy for.
The Facebook group with faces of people I’m meant to spend the majority of my awake time with over the next year.
The end of year party, that I had been nagging my boss to get the night off for, that in the end I couldn’t attend.
It all started to get real, and what had just been feeling like a foggy dream for the last 8 months, was now getting closer to reality.
Reading the achievements by the 14/15 students, at first intimidated me. Making me question myself even more. Again, thinking, plan b.

But then I remembered Eytan, that I met on my interview day at the school. I was not feeling great after my presentation and he tried his best to cheer me up. But there was this one thing I remember him telling me when I said I was worried I wouldn’t get a place at the school.
He said: don’t take no for an answer, prepare a speech, write a reflection blog of what you could have done better, force them to accept you.
At the time, it really motivated me. Thinking back of it now, it made me think that you know what, that is exactly the attitude I need to have. To leave my negative comfort zone behind and not take no for an answer.
Then slowly, it built up a hope within me, that perhaps then I will be able to achieve really well as well. I just gotta prove all the no sayers in my head wrong.

The feeling was great! It was as if I was swimming in a lake, that all of a sudden had a canal to the ocean.
It all came to me at once, I’ve been keeping myself from getting out in the ocean for too long now.
And what Harry had said all made sense, there’s only so many lakes one can swim in.
It’s time for a swim in the ocean.
I’m ready, SCA, bring on the sharks!