New blogger Lina Abdul Halim talks about international study, being at a cross-roads in life and how it’s never too late to start learning…

It was September 2013. I found myself sitting in my room, wondering what I was going to do with my life. I have been a film and documentary editor for the last 4 years but there was something missing…

I don’t have a Bachelor’s degree to my name. My highest level of education is a Diploma in Communication and Media and I graduated in 2010. I had already started working months before I even graduated from that. I needed the money. Malaysia didn’t have that many film schools to choose from. Going overseas cost too much money and in 2010, my family couldn’t afford it and I was already stuck paying student loans for my Diploma.

I learned everything I knew on the job but I was just following orders. I never took the time to really read up on why certain things worked the way they did – or rather, I didn’t have the time to do it.

Fast forward 3 years, at the age of 26, after a few movies and several documentaries, I was tired and burning out. I didn’t know what to do with myself, but I was far too young to be jaded. I sat down with my father – my hero and my #1 cheerleader – and asked him one question: “am I too old to go back to school?”

His reply: No one is ever too old to pursue education.

That was when I decided that I wanted to take a Master’s degree. I figured I would have more time to really refine my skills and knowledge as well as work on the creative aspect of film-making. I looked at film-making degrees and stumbled upon Bournemouth University, which had a more focused course, the one thing I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life.

So I dug up my Diploma and transcripts, I asked my old lecturers and employers to write me reference letters and I sent them over to BU along with my application to pursue an MA in Post Production Editing. I feared my lack of a Bachelor’s Degree might hinder my chances of getting in…

But it didn’t.

And so on 12 September 2014 at 4:30PM GMT+08:00, with my big orange suitcase, a 30L backpack and a teddy bear, I boarded that 21 hour flight all the way to England.