I feel absolutely awful for these A Level students. The government should be ashamed of themselves for the handling of their results! If you've been given grades you weren't expecting, I promise there is hope... (a thread)

When I was doing my equivalent of A Levels in Australia, my aunty in the UK passed away very suddenly the day before my exams started. Naturally, as a sensitive 17yo, I sat in my exams and wasn't able to write a single word on any of the papers.

My English Lit exam, the one I was predicted to get an A in (no A* in Australia), was the day of her funeral. I sat in that exam and wrote nothing. They averaged out my grades for 'mitigating circumstances' and I ended up with 3x C's and one D (you do four subjects in Australia).

It wasn't enough to get into my dream Uni back in the UK (Southampton) which I had a conditional offer for, but it was enough to get into another UK Uni I had applied to - Brunel. At Brunel more shit happened (another aunty died, and I lost a baby). I left there with a 2:2.

I always felt like I wasn't academic and always felt very average. I was SO scared my career would be average too. That I would just never break that feeling of failure that wasn't really any fault of my own. But you know what? The opposite happened.

I got an internship after Uni and worked really hard. I got a job, and worked really hard. I then got a better job, and still worked hard. I then followed my heart and moved back to Australia where I got my DREAM job and double the pay I was on in London.

THEN another tragedy - by this time I was 26, and I lost a second baby. But work is different to exams and school, it's more lenient and more supportive and my bosses were incredible. Two weeks later I smashed a superbowl campaign. Then I decided to move back to the UK.

Once again I felt I had failed because honestly, the second loss was too much and I was worried I was running away from the pain by leaving Australia when I had everything I had ever wanted out there. But then something insane happened.

I was contacted by an ex-colleague who told me a role had come up in her team at Google in London. I interviewed via Google Hangouts at midnight multiple times due to the time difference. And then I got the job.

When I thought I had failed it was actually the beginning of something even more incredible. I've been at Google over two years now and absolutely love it and am THRIVING there. I earn good money (my income doubled again moving back to the UK from Australia) and I LOVE my work.

The point of this thread, is no matter how shit a year it's been, even though none of this is your fault and you've been dealt a shit hand by things out of your control, I promise it will be okay. This is just the start of your incredible journey. #alevels

If you didn't get into the Uni you wanted to go to, there are options. Call up your other options, go through clearing, maybe take a year out and focus on a passion project. No matter what you choose, some day you'll be grateful that things went a bit shit all those years ago.