Today I’m leaving for London to start the degree programme at Circus Space.

10 weeks ago I found out I had been accepted, despite not being a gymnast, and despite being close to ten years older than the average applicant.

I have been declined for funding from just about everywhere, but with the help of some fabulous people I have scrapped together 3% of the total money I need to complete the course. I now have no fixed abode, and have left with less luggage then when I went to New York.

When my letter from Circus Space arrived I was all geared up for a polite rejection, like I had received the year before. At best I'de hoped for some mention of my improvements, or perhaps, somehow, a place on their waiting list. I’m 29 years old, not a gymnast, nor a professionally trained dancer; I am a cabaret artist, Burlesquer and performer who has spent the last two years in the pursuit of the seemingly unattainable goal of becoming a professional circus artist.

Imagine my complete and utter catatonic shock when I read the letter, and they had offered me a place on their degree programme!!! I had to re-read it, dumbfounded. I gave it to my boyfriend to read, to make sure I hadn’t gone completely crazy and that all the months of pull-ups hadn’t somehow rendered me spontaneously illiterate. It wasn’t a shock to him, nor I subsequently discovered, to many of the other people around me. They had all been able to see the hard work, dedication and slow but steady improvements I had been making, whilst I was still only able to see someone who wasn’t good enough.

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Help Vendetta to get back to circus school