I begun my SGH journey in 1989 and graduated in 1994 and we were first year to go with a new extended program. When we joined the Social Economic profile everything to do with it sounded so boring but the changing social-economic system around us made it anything but! Year one was unchanged but from year two the world of opportunity has opened the door wide and invited us to come in. We did everything! Marketing, diplomatic protocols, advertising, banking - things which were never available before. We also had so much more choice when it came to choosing the subject for our dissertation. I went with banking: "The credit and deposit activity of PKO PB".

I loved the research part of it and I loved making it all fit. Personal Computers were only just entering our world and the Internet didn't exist. I wrote my dissertation in WordPerfect! One day I lost 10 pages and had to re-write it.... These things happen.

But SGH wasn't all about the studying. I joined Tramp (tourist club), and I walked many miles in the mountains in Poland and other countries. There was friendship, romance, hardship and experiences that coloured my life forever. The trip to Asia in 1992 was the most important milestone of my life. I still can't believe how my parents could ever let me go so far into the unknown! We didn't even have a landline phone at home at the time. All I could do is to write letters (who writes letters these days!). Well, I'm just grateful that they did.

But all things come to an end and so SGH was over and it was time to look for a job. Let me say it again: the world was changing! We had all those massive global corporations entering the Polish market: KPMG, Arthur Andersen, Ernst and Young, Motorola - now the fallen giants but then at their prime. I joined myself at Motorola and spent there three good, exciting years. I learned a huge amount! I returned to SGH for further education, a post-grauated course in logistics (I love logistics). I also met my husband, who is English and I moved with him to the UK.

The UK became my home. My kids were born here and after they started their secondary education, I set up my own business. My company is called Visually Explained Ltd and provides social media support for business. I'm not going to go into details of what we do as this can be found on our website, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.

What happened over the last five years of running my own business is fascinating. I now do things I never knew I could. Over the last two years I became a runner, completing three half marathons this year and improving my time each on each outing. I'm learning French because I can. I moved my business from home to an external office. I speak on the radio and organise social media training courses. At the beginning of 2019 I and my business were shortlisted for the Wiltshire Business Awards.

I'm surprised at how differently life turned out compared to how the prospects initially appeared. That first year at SGH, was promising nothing but a boring existence but with political changes the world of opportunity invited us to take our chances and to step into the unknown. I think I did just that and I continue doing it every day as the journey continues and in the words of my friend "the best is still to come".