I've arrived

OK, I've attempted blogs before but this time I really need to try harder. My very wise cousin in New York told me I should do this, so AT, this is all your fault!

I want to use this blog to write about my crazy idea to go back to University again. You see back when I was 18, I left Gibraltar, fresh faced and fancy free to do a degree in Engineering. Crazy? I didn't have the best careers advice at school but to make a long story short, I picked from a list of top 10 best paid careers and ended up choosing Engineering.

I grew up in New York, where everyone tells you, you can do what ever you want, as long as you put your head to it! I suppose this is true for most people, but you have to have a real passion for it if you really want something.

I didn't really want to be an Engineer. So somehow I got through three years and ended up failing my last exams. Its ok, I never enjoyed it, but I did meet my husband there, he was my lab partner.

And so I left Uni, got a job at Prudential, looking after people's company pensions. It paid well, and I made a pretty good success out of a boring finance job. Once I had kids though, it just got tougher and tougher, until I hit a massive brick wall when my oldest daughter started school. I just couldn't manage.

So I got upset, left my job and sought some professional advice. What do I do now? My advisor asked me, what do you see yourself doing in ten years time? The first thing that shot out of my mouth, I want to write. I'd been writing short stories since I was five years old. When I was seven, my grandfather read one of them and was so excited for me that he gave me his typewriter to use. You see, my grandfather was a published writer back in the day, and his father before that.

Somehow in the move from New York to Gibraltar, I lost my confidence. I spent so much time trying to fit in, I forgot who I was supposed to be.

Now I had a second chance. I joined a creative writing class, and then an acting class. I joined the local amateur drama company. The first play I did was a musical and I had wonderful principal part that had me singing solo on stage for the first time ever. 

It was truly amazing. My creative appetite was growing, and after much soul searching, and web crawling, I found a degree in Humanities I could apply to at the nearest University where I could study the modules I wanted, Film Studies, Philosophy, Creative Writing, and Acting.

I applied, and despite the competition, got accepted a few weeks later. Its been four amazing weeks and I'm just doing Film and Philosophy this year, part time, until my youngest goes to school full time. I should have that magical BA Hons degree in my hands in four years.

I've had a lot of help from family and friends, and a wonderful guardian angel.

I wanted to do this blog to maybe there have been so many people who have inspired me. This is my way of thanking them.