How it all began

Tereza Tomanová
Apr 15, 2018
4 min read

How it all began

People say, that if you want to experience something extraordinary in your life, you need to step out of your comfort zone. That none of the real adventures happens there. And as long as you stay in your comfort zone, you can't genuinely live. And I agree with that. After all, fighting my fears and stepping out of my comfort zone is what brought me to my current life. To the student life in London.[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"></v:path> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"></o:lock> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="officeArt_x0020_object" o:spid="_x0000_s1027" type="#_x0000_t75" style='position:absolute;margin-left:-6.9pt;margin-top:19.7pt; width:247.35pt;height:185pt;z-index:251659264;visibility:visible; mso-wrap-style:square;mso-wrap-distance-left:12pt;mso-wrap-distance-top:12pt; mso-wrap-distance-right:12pt;mso-wrap-distance-bottom:12pt; mso-position-horizontal:absolute;mso-position-horizontal-relative:margin; mso-position-vertical:absolute;mso-position-vertical-relative:line' wrapcoords="0 0 21600 0 21600 21594 0 21594 0 0" strokeweight="1pt"> <v:stroke miterlimit="4"></v:stroke> <v:imagedata src="file:////Users/bruger/Library/Group%20Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg" o:title=""></v:imagedata> <w:wrap type="through" anchorx="margin" anchory="line"></w:wrap> </v:shape><![endif][if !vml][endif]

My name is Tereza, and I'm 21-year-old girl studying

(and hopefully successfully finishing!) second year Journalism and Media at the Middlesex University in London. It's been a year and a half since I moved from the small town in South Moravia to the big city full of people, adventures and surprises.

I decided to join SteadyGo project to share my experience and to hopefully inspire others to break their comfort zone too. Today I will tell you, how I stepped out of mine.

I was quite a determined kid. When I was around ten years old, I came to my mum to notify her of the fact, that I decided to be a journalist. At the age of fourteen, I decided to do my Master's degree in the UK, because I heard that there you could study Master's for only one year instead of the regular two as it is in the Czech Republic. My plan was clear. Go to the grammar school, do my Maturita exam, get the Bachelor's degree and then move to the UK for one year.

But honestly? I wasn't doing anything to fulfill my dream. Yes, I got to the grammar school, yes, I planned to apply for universities in Czech, but my knowledge about how it works in the UK or how can I get there was on a freezing point. I was the worst type of the person - the one who has the biggest dreams, talks about them a lot, but never really do anything for them. Nobody around me believed that I will ever move to the UK. And deep down, neither was I.

But I guess, what is suppose to happen, happens. I know it might sound like a big cliché, but believe me, it must have been a fate which brought me to the London. I don't have any other explanation.

My 'London girl' story began in the November 2015, in the fourth year of grammar school on the Gaudeamus University Fair in Brno. I didn't go there to find university I want to apply for (I already knew that), but to make sure I have all of the necessary information about applications. I grabbed all of the crucial leaflets and was ready to leave. And then I saw it. A big stall of the Unilink study abroad agency with a motto: Study in the UK with us!

A told my two classmates who I came with to wait and went there to know more. I realised that it is probably the last time I attend the University fair, so I wanted to ask them if they are offering their services for Master's study too. I got in the chat with the guy, not much older than me, who probably changed my life by a quick talk. And by a quick talk I mean this:

Me: “Hi, I want to ask, are you helping only with the Bachelor's study or also with the Master’s?" The guy who changed my life: “Why Masters? You are already at uni or what?” Me: “No, I'm not. I'm at the high school, but I want to do Bachelor's here and then go for Master's to the UK.”

The guy who changed my life: “Why?”

Me: “I don't know. I planned it this way.”

The guy who changed my life: “And is there anything that holds you here in Czech? Something why you can't leave?”

Me: “No, there isn't. As I said, I just planned it this way.”

The guy who changed my life: “And how do you know, that after three more years in the Czech you will be able to leave when you are not now?”[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_s1026" type="#_x0000_t75" style='position:absolute;margin-left:287.1pt; margin-top:15.3pt;width:194.3pt;height:191.6pt;z-index:251660288;visibility:visible; mso-wrap-style:square;mso-wrap-distance-left:12pt;mso-wrap-distance-top:12pt; mso-wrap-distance-right:12pt;mso-wrap-distance-bottom:12pt; mso-position-horizontal:absolute;mso-position-horizontal-relative:margin; mso-position-vertical:absolute;mso-position-vertical-relative:line' wrapcoords="-6 0 21594 0 21594 21594 -6 21594 -6 0" strokeweight="1pt"> <v:stroke miterlimit="4"></v:stroke> <v:imagedata src="file:////Users/bruger/Library/Group%20Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/msoclip1/01/clip_image003.jpg" o:title=""></v:imagedata> <w:wrap type="through" anchorx="margin" anchory="line"></w:wrap> </v:shape><![endif][if !vml][endif]

And that was it. I didn't answer that question. My comfort zone was disturbed by

that simple question, which I was repeating in my head all over again for months. The question I didn't know the answer for. The question which changed my life.

Later that day I remember myself sitting in the living room, holding the Unilink booklet and telling my mum that I maybe want to apply for the university in the UK. Her words made the final decision. “So do it,” she said. My comfort zone didn't longer exist.

In March 2016 I was officially conditionally accepted to the Middlesex University London, but I will tell you more later. (: