Sometimes I do think life can be strange, especially if you stop to think about those ‘sliding doors’ moments, which may have taken your life in such a different direction. Does anyone else wonder how much of life is fate and how much of it is based upon a series of decisions, or in some cases the inability to make decisions!?
My choice to egg freeze last year and the subsequent decision to start writing this blog has in itself provided many opportunities and given me a new perspective and experiences that otherwise I wouldn’t have had.
For example, who would have thought I would have been the main case study for someone’s thesis!
This journey began at the end of last year when Melanie, a masters student from Belguim contacted me via my blog. She explained that her personal interest in egg freezing had led her to this thesis topic. As an Anthropology student, it was the human side she was interested in and therefore wanted to speak to women that had been through the process themselves, as she had no personal experience to bring to the table. After a few Skype chats and emails to and from her tutor, I agreed to be involved in her research. When I started this blog I wanted to be open about my experiences so that it could help others, and so talking to Melanie felt like a further step in this journey. Melanie and I immediately clicked and our conversations flowed very naturally between my thoughts on freezing my eggs, to more general things that were going on in my life. If I think about it, it’s pretty crazy that our conversation was so easy seems as there is such a large gap between our stages of life and also the fact that we’d never actually met.
Shortly after Melanie started her research she asked whether I would become her main focus of her case studies, which meant we spoke at regular intervals for almost 7 months.
A few weeks ago Mum and I went to Bruges for the weekend so we made arrangments to meet up with Melanie en route. It was great to finally meet, but strange that it was almost like meeting a friend that I hadn’t seen for some time, rather than someone that I’d never met!
Not only was it a privilege to be involved in the shaping of Melanie’s thesis, but also to be able to share my experiences with someone that showed so much interest and appreciation for the decision I had made.
Melanie scored a distinction for her masters, which is an amazing achievement and in some very small way, I’d like to think I helped one little step on that road!
