Learning Never Stops and Neither Does the Fight to Matter By Rowena
I joined VODW's classes wanting to enhance my knowledge, arriving excited for what more than two years of ESOL, IT, Mediacom, Body Mind and Wellness, Financial Literacy, and the Future Voices Revolution programme would bring. I believed firmly that life is a nonstop process of learning, and that belief guided me through every session I attended.
Asked what I learned, I laugh that there is simply too much to mention, I have improved so much more than I was before. During my sessions, I experienced what feels like a full circle of growth, reconnecting with myself, reducing my stress, building confidence, becoming more resilient, feeling healed, finding a sense of belonging, and perhaps most powerfully, coming to understand that I matter. That last realisation carries particular weight for me, having spent years being treated as replaceable rather than valued.
Words of wisdom from my classes have stayed with me ever since, and by the end of my time in the programme, I am confident even in front of a crowd, a transformation that speaks volumes for someone who likely once preferred to stay unseen. My graduation was, in my own words, an amazing feeling, wearing a black toga I call everyone's dream, a moment of visible, public celebration that clearly meant a great deal to me.
My gratitude toward my teachers and the wider VODW family is sincere, thanks for their patience, dedication, and the effort it took to make these experiences possible.
My hope for the future is refreshingly proactive, to grab every free opportunity that comes my way. My realisation that I matter sits at the very heart of what VODW fights for through its campaigns, the right to change employer without restriction, the right to renew the ODW visa, the right to settlement, and the right to British citizenship, each one an assertion, in law, of the very truth I discovered for myself in the classroom, that I matter, fully and unconditionally.
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