There have been quite a few signs lately that Queen’s actually intends to let me in.

Sure, they made an offer ages ago and I’ve accepted my place, Student Finance have sent me a payment schedule, I have a student number. There are even dates in my (shiny new) diary and everything, but apparently none of that is actually quite enough to convince me that THIS IS HAPPENING.

Then I was assigned an email address. An actual @qub.ac.uk email address. This is getting serious.

Of course my first attempt to log in didn’t work. Bodes well… *insert eyeroll here*… For half a heartbeat I was the proud owner of a QUB email address that I couldn’t actually access, while the various online systems this mythical email address promised to open up seemed to have differing opinions on whether I existed at all. Eventually I discovered that I could get into things using another, much less exciting username involving my newly assigned student number and an elongated QUB tag. Not quite the same, but still, I was in.

Obviously, the first thing I did was send myself a test email. For Science. I needed independent verification that this shiny new address genuinely belonged to me. It arrived. I replied. It arrived again. Thrilling stuff. How many “Test”, “Test back” exchanges is too many?

Weirdly, my name sitting there beside an actual Queen’s University email address was a milestone that did something all the official letters, emails and forms somehow hadn’t. It made the whole thing feel just a tiny bit more real. I have a university email address. Me! I remember when having an email address at all was exciting. Presumably in a few weeks that inbox will contain lectures, deadlines, assignments and emails I will desperately wish were a wee bit further away, but for now, it’s gloriously empty. I’m going to enjoy THAT while it lasts.