It can sometimes feel like the odds are stacked against you, that it isn't worth it, that the critics are too persistent and the problems are too great.
The lobby was dark and empty, cool, the air conditioner thrumming. The plastic molded chairs were stacked along the walls, and the carpet smelled like shampoo.
In total, there are more than 700km of shelves, and most of them are stacked up here, in one of the colossal low-oxygen storage buildings in Boston Spa in Yorkshire.
So that's part of the reason why you see these pallets of goods stacked up to the ceiling is there's not a lot of time spent taking apart those pallets, putting each individual product on the shelf.
What's more, as one of the few survivors of a system stacked against her, she'll feel isolated and overwhelmed by all of the expectations of how her education will somehow change everything.