# Second Chances
[](https://dulandrift.formosahut.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-02/image-1644540522585.png)You then re-sat your A-levels, passed, but still not great, coz you got rejected from all the unis - which is a nice touch - for someone who would go onto *rule them all*.
Interestingly, 40 years later, you still have nightmares about those exams:
[Desert Islands \[00:14:25\]](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_866?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=paragraph&utm_campaign=public_promo)
*I used to wake up with nightmares thinking 'I've got to do my bloody A-levels again' - for years! Uhmm, so it's only in the last year or two I've gotten over that, actually. It's amazing the scars.*
Yeah, amazing. So how *did* you get in?
You got proactive - you went up to stay with your big sister, a nurse in London, together you formed this plan to *knock on doors* of all the unis - actually mainly your sister - you were slightly skeptical but gave it a go.
[Desert Island Discs \[00:15:09\]](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_909?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo) *I went round all of them and they all said, no, of course, because ****the world doesn't work like that****. Except one. And a character called ****Robin Forrest**** who is still alive and still well and ****still in contact**** with, ****opened the door**** and said, oh, you must be here for the interviews.*
So the world does, or doesn't work like that? Or it does *and *it doesn't?
*And I said, making it up, ‘Yeah, actually, I am.’ And obviously* ***people have been written to**** and I got a place at medical school and I'm eternally grateful.*
I'm less eternally grateful, Jeremy, but that's only me - Robin Forrest - your door-opener - i’m guessing it’s this one?
[Robin Forrest:](https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/robin-forrest) *Visiting Expert at the ****Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics****, visiting Scientist at Xerox PARC, ****Honorary Professor of Shandong University****, Consultant for General Motors, Boeing, Lockheed, Xerox, Digital, Apple, Philips, Adobe, Rolls-Royce, worked for the defense in various patent cases concerning computer painting systems.*
Also wondering was your father, Eric, one of those who helped with *the people having been written to* part?
Doesn’t matter, i don’t doubt you’ve got talent. Charm has always been your strong suit - i see how you could have done it. The cocky, quick-witted 19 year-old - with the exotic upbringing - rocking up at universities trying to talk his way in...
Anyway, the important part is you got your foot in the door of academia - now here we are.
[**dulan drift**](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=3133), Sunday, September 05, 2021