To set the scene a little, it was the Friday that Andy Murray progressed from his semi-final match, as you can imagine, SDI’s offices have the Saltire everywhere in the form of stickers on the windows and flags too with maps of Scotland. Add to that, this music blaring out and you can only imagine the atmosphere this created in the office. It was a great way to end the working week and I even learnt a piece of Scottish footballing history with the ‘We have a dream’ song and the background around that. All of that in addition to the Saltire also being flown at 10 Downing street for the final meant I was very proud to be representing Scotland – and in London as well.

Work has been getting steadily busy, especially with the Olympics coming up quickly. As the main person in London working on those Olympic events and opportunities for Scottish companies, I get everything directed to me and I am liaising with different people all over the world – mainly high profile executives due to be attending our events. It has been a two-fold experience for me in terms of on the one hand, I can’t believe the responsibility that I have placed on me when liaising with these high flying executives of major companies and on the other hand I just embrace it and decide that yes, I actually do deserve that responsibility and am capable of delivering on it. The last couple of weeks have been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride where there have been ups and downs but then it is the focus on those positives that really outweigh the negatives and helps to pull you up. I expected to be challenged and those challenges have definitely arisen in several aspects of life so far.

Attending the Alumni event in London last week was great as I got to meet some fantastic members of the alumni, and even scholars stretching way back to the beginning. It was great to listen to the speeches and do some networking afterwards.

Janet