Former Harrogate Ladies’ College student India Taylor, 19, was one of those caught up in the A level results fiasco in the summer. Throughout this year, she has learnt to expect the unexpected, as she tells the Stray Ferret.

Where do I start? This year has been one surprise after another.

I started the year coming back to school and hearing the usual “this is the time to start knuckling down and working hard” lecture that every student knows too well.

At this point, I still had my hopes set on studying Psychology with Criminology at Loughborough but that was about to change. Around mid-March, I chose to reapply to Leeds Beckett so I could stay close to home.

That same week was the first time I realised coronavirus would be sticking around. I went to two amazing gigs in Leeds but both bands were unsure whether they’d be able to finish their tour because of the spreading virus.

Within a week, my exams were cancelled and it was announced that schools would be closing on Friday. It all happened so quickly.

The atmosphere in my all-girls sixth form was dead. On our last day of school, we all sat in the common room and watched as Boris Johnson announced a full lockdown. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing: this was history in the making.

Read more:

• More than a third of all Harrogate A-level grades to be changed
• Video: students talk of uncertainty as schools close

During the next few months we all gave up hope and our online learning became pointless. By late May, that was it, we had officially finished our secondary education… It couldn’t have been any further form what we planned.

I took up running during the summer and focussed on looking for the positives in the world, even when it all seemed impossible.

Then came results day, a day I’d spent years working hard for. I opened my laptop the next morning and I saw B, C, E. I became another victim of the government’s algorithm.

I was distraught, but I channelled my energy into standing up for myself. I emailed my local MP as well as any media sources I could find contact details for.

I’m so proud of my generation for putting pressure on the government to make a U-turn just four days later. I now had BBB and was absolutely thrilled.

I deferred my place at Leeds Beckett as I knew I would miss out on so much due to the virus.

The final term at Harrogate Ladies’ College was not what anyone was expecting

Covid became even more real in September when I tested positive. It started with a tight chest and left me without my sense of smell for a month.

I wasn’t breaking any rules – I was simply babysitting a child for a working mother who needed to go to work.

In the new year, I am hoping to go to Munich to be an au pair for an Irish family, but as I am writing this, more and more travel bans are being introduced.

If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that the entire world can change in just a matter of hours.