University? Find a job? Foundation course? Gap year? Year 13 is a stressful year not only in exams, but with deciding what you want to do with your life.

It’s a scary thought to think that next year you won’t be back at John Masefield, seeing the same people, doing the same things.

After seven years at the same school, it becomes a big part of your life and it’s hard to imagine not being there. It feels like a safety blanket that you know you have grown out of, but you still want near you in case something doesn’t turn out the way you wanted it to.

Right about now, the ‘list of things to do before I leave school’ is dramatically being replaced with the completing of UCAS forms and revising for up and coming exams. Everywhere you go you are constantly reminded that you have to: decide what to do after college, decide what uni to go to, decide who or what you want to be when you’re older, decide what to eat, wear, watch. You feel like you have to prepare for the task ahead and try to take on more responsibilities otherwise “how will you cope with living on your own if you can't even boil an egg?” gets thrown at you.

However, not all of this preparation is left up to you. Quite unconsciously you are being prepped and tutored for this moment in your life by none other than where you are now, John Masefield.

Small reminders of deadlines and the responsibility of remembering and turning up to lessons on time are all part of it. Mentors are provided to help you along the way and assure you that no matter how many things you have to do, there is always time to do them. Every question can be answered and every worry can be lessened while at the same time getting you through each day with ease.

Sometimes you are looking so far into the future, you forget what you have here and now. Help is there at every step of the way to assist in making the daunting prospect of growing up slightly less frightening. But for now, I still have my trusty safety blanket to fall back on and prepare me for the most exciting and important decisions of my life.