In the end, she needn’t have worried. She received an unconditional offer and just like that, her dream became a reality. Even now, she wasn’t sure if it had quite sunk in yet.

Still, when the day came, she had been ready. It was time to fly the nest and begin the next chapter in her life. She knew the sacrifices that her parents were making to enable her to go to university. They did okay but they were hardly swimming in cash. Katie had offered to get a job so that she could pay her way but they would not hear of it. It was nothing, they insisted, they could manage just fine, she should concentrate on her studies.

Her big brother, Tom, had left for Manchester University two years before her and he’d had no qualms about taking their parents’ money and spending most of it on booze. He came home in the holidays, regaling her with stories about crazy nights out, and she listened to it and wondered if he did any studying at all. She wanted to make new friends and have fun but more than anything, she wanted to immerse herself in university life, to smell the dusty books in the library, to gaze at the architecture of the university buildings, to be inspired and to learn.

Her phone pinged and she fished it out of her pocket. It was a message from her mum.

Just checking in to see you’re okay. Have you had your jabs? xxx

She typed out a quick reply.

Just waiting now, call you later xx

Her mum called and texted her several times a day. They had always been close, the two of them, and Katie knew that she was struggling with empty nest syndrome, so she was trying to be patient with her. As she pocketed her phone and moved forward another inch in the queue, she spotted a girl from her college. She caught her eye and gave her a little wave and the girl waved back, mouthing, ‘Coffee after this?’ Katie nodded her agreement.

Everyone had been so friendly. Her dad had been worried that Oxford would feel like a private school club and that his beloved daughter would feel excluded from the clique but she hadn’t experienced that so far. It seemed that they were all just a bunch of young people trying to make friends and settle into their new digs. She had been invited on a pub crawl with a few people from her college that evening and she was looking forward to it. She considered what to wear. Jeans and a smart top, she decided: she didn’t want to overdo it.

Finally, after forty-five minutes, she reached the front of the queue and got her vaccinations. As she was pulling her sleeve down afterwards, she looked around for the girl whose name she had completely forgotten and saw her waiting by one of the exits. She smiled and walked up to her.