Hi Ben,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun 
Have fun crawling out of the beginner phase , you are the only one who can do that 
and it is easier than most novice players think…just put putting your butt on the chair (Justin words and very true 
)with the guitar in your hands and follow the lessons and learning to play songs 
Greetings,Rogier
Welcome Ben, and thank you for the introduction! One year is nothing in guitar years! I like @roger_holland’s word - novice. Which could be considered a subcategory of beginner. It’s probably ok to feel like an eternal beginner, in fact I wonder if maybe that’s a good mindset with guitar. No matter how proficient one is, there is always something new to learn! Of course, this is a fellow beginner speaking. 
Hi Ben,
Greetings from Poland 
Only recently have I renewed my acquaintance with Justin Guitar after years of being just a completely passive observer. Fortunately, I never stopped playing 
You’re perfectly right, this website is fabulous and the community friendly and helpful. After all, it’s always nice to socialize (even in a virtual world) with folks who share the same passion. I wish you all the best in your guitar learning journey and I’m sure successes will come in no time.
Regards
Tomasz
Welcome to the forum Ben
Hi Ben I like your hat, I have one like that I might make it my guitar hat, anyway nice meeting you and as all said above we all started there so we just keep going cheers Hec
Welcome aboard, Ben!
Wish you loads of fun playing guitar and hopefully finding someone to jam along with. As I recall, Oxford is full of musicians, so in the long run this should work out.
Welcome Ben,
Enjoy your journey and have fun.
A
Wow! Such lovely welcomes from you all: thank you so much. I really appreciate the messages and support. I am certainly going to keep on keepin’ on.
@DeltaTyne - thanks. I love a fedora and have a purple version and SRV style one too… definitely guitar hats .
Welcome Ben and enjoy the ride
You think talking 'bout hats will distract from the purple waistcoat and leopard-skin coat? You’re gonna fit right in
Haha I must wear my trilby for my very first post of my guitar playing since joining Justin and the Blim course, I do keep promising cheers Hec
Worth a try…
Hi Ben,
Welcome to the forum. I can only repeat what others have said about this being the place to learn, so as you said yourself keep on keeping on!
Mick
Welcome Ben
Just keep chipping away you’ll get there
Hi Ben,
nice to meet you.
Don’t forget that you don’t need to practice lots and lots, but just a little as often as you can, like every day? … or 3 to 5 days a week? But well, I warn you… after a further year or two, the guitar could become a drug 
Cheers, Dominique, Berlin
Hey Ben, welcome to the community. Learning to play guitar was one of my better decisions in my life. The rewards are super.
Hi Ben,
Welcome to the community forum.
Hello Ben.
Welcome to JustinGuitar and this fantastic community. Please take your time to look around and get to know the wider space.
https://community.justinguitar.com/categories
We are a supportive and encouraging group of students and guitarists from across the world. Essentially, we are all here for music and to improve as players. We truly are a ‘community’. Members help and support one another and a friendly, positive attitude underpins this. We hope that all - young or old, experienced or new players - adopt and foster the pay-it-forward ethos that Justin personifies and embedded all those years ago when he started the website and forum.
Also, please make sure to read the community etiquette announcement for some important information and guidance.
ps
Did you get sorted with the audio tracks in the Beginner Book. If I recall correctly, they should be on CD-ROMs attached to the inside cover.
Richard
Many thanks, Richard. Thanks for remembering re the books. The issue was that there were no CDs with the books and, so, I had to try the find the relevant tracks online which I sort of managed to do!
Further thanks to all your kind welcomes! What a fab. community this is
Hi Ben, welcome to the community forum. I had several tries to finish the beginner course and progress to intermediate. I have found the new grade 3 (beginner+ or advancing beginner level) is a great place to learn to transition to grade 4 and intermediate level. I quickly went through grades 1 and 2 again, but have spent over a year in grade 3, which gives you time to review and consolidate all your grade 1 and 2 skills by learning songs. The most important thing I have learned as I am just finishing grade 3 is how to learn and how to organize my practice. I wish you a lot of success as you make good progress in mastering the beginning grades and transitioning to intermediate guitar lessons.