The distractions of a university place.

So, as you can probably tell from the title, I GOT INTO UNI! Yes indeedy, so as you can imagine I’ve been very excited, but also kinda distracted. My results were so much better than what I anticipated though – an A in English (HOW?!?!?), a B in Psychology (3 marks off an A, I’m toying with the idea of getting it remarked even though it doesn’t really matter) and a B in Drama, which really surprised me! So there was much celebrating and a little bit of alcohol consumed that evening. I should’ve updated you all sooner but things have just been crazy – I’ve been trying to sort out accommodation, clearing – yeah, had a change of heart, decided I didn’t want to go to my Firm so there was a bit of a palaver with that, but I’m going to do a blog post in the future for anyone else who chooses to go through clearing, to give any advice I can -, got to go shopping for uni stuff, at the same time as sorting out appointments and trying to have some semblance of a social life!

So, I’m going to Glyndwr University in Wrexham to study Theatre, Television and Performance. I’m so excited, and a little bit nervous but I’m sure it’ll settle down once I’m there. For a small uni it’s got a reputation as a party university, and although I like a drink and to have a laugh, I’m not one for going properly crazy and stealing traffic cones (don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’ll happen during Freshers, just not every evening of every week!). So I’m worried that there won’t be anyone like me there – that there’ll be two distinct groups; the ones who want to go crazy every night, who I won’t fit in with, and ones who never go out, who I also won’t fit in with. I don’t want to stay in every night and study; yes the main reason for going to university is to learn but there’s also the whole experience, the independence and the fun. However, I also don’t want to lose control of myself by getting too drunk – things are so wonderful at the moment that I think to upset the balance could be disasterous.

Hopefully my fears are just rubbish and there’ll be plenty of people there like me, and I’ll never feel pressured to go out and get drunk if I don’t fancy it. I’m sure everyone there is really nice, and the good thing is that my best friend is going there doing the same course, so things won’t be too bad. I’ll keep you all posted 🙂

*happy dances*

I’m one step closer towards going to university, YAY!

I’ve had a reply off Glyndwr University, in Wrexham – they’re still accepting applications for English & Creative Writing, and they’ll hopefully be available in UCAS Clearing. If I was able to get in to do that course there, I’d be thrilled! I’ve visited Glyndwr and I love everything about it – it’s a fairly small university, but it’s Welsh, and I really do want to stay in Wales if at all possible, it seems to have a lovely community feel to it, the accommodation I want to be in looks AMAZING, I haven’t met the teachers for the course I want to do but for the one I went to see at the open day, they’re lovely. Everyone was very helpful, it’s a lovely campus, only a couple of hours away from home by bus and I’m really happy.

I won’t be devastated if I don’t get in there – there’s also Bangor, Aberystwyth and a few outside of Wales that I’m interested in (after seeing pictures and details of the accommodation at Edge Hill, I did say that no matter where I go, I’m going to stay at Edge Hill and commute, but I’m not sure how great commuting from Ormskirk to Bangor would be every day – especially when that’d be about three hours and I only live an hour from Bangor, for goodness’ sake! Plus, I’m pretty sure there’s rules against it – oh well. But Edge Hill is on my list to apply for, so there’s still a chance!

I’m glad that I can finally post a happier post on the university front – one that isn’t either completely bad or good but slightly tinged with sadness. I’m happy, and I think I can relax a bit more, until UCAS Extra starts on the 24th February – when I will start bricking myself again! 😛

I don’t want to jinx it, but…

…. I might just be making plans that I actually feel quite confident about!

Well, I say confident – I don’t want to build myself up, only to be let down horribly when they don’t work out, BUT I’m a step closer and I’m actually making plans. The midwifery is going on hold until I feel better and I feel more confident about being able to deal with the long hours and everything. I know I want to be a midwife, but that might be on hold now until I’m older and maybe have more life experience.

So for now, I’m looking at my other interests – creative writing and journalism. I’ve made a list of the universities I’d consider going to, which offer the courses I want to do – either English and Creative Writing, just Creative Writing or Journalism. I think e=the opportunities after that sort of course are as good as they are for most jobs at the moment – not amazing – but I think if I do a degree I’ll enjoy, I’ll worry about jobs in three years time.

Next job – to look at accommodation and stuffs, and then after that, to hope that they have vacancies in Extra/Clearing!

There may be trouble ahead…

Sorry for the cheesy title – but the song seems to be quite apt at the minute. I’m trying to keep hopeful, and tell myself that there’s nothing I can do and I need to wait and see what happens – but it’s looking more hopeless by the minute, and I’m going to have to make some tough decisions pretty soon.

I want to be a midwife. I know I want to be a midwife, and it’d be a shame if I never get to be a midwife because it is a career that really interests me – but I don’t know if I come across as passionate enough about it to get in. And that’s if I even GET to an interview – at the moment, it looks like they only want people with work experience (living where I live, that isn’t easy), and all the courses for 2012 entry are closed. So, right now it looks like if I want to do Midwifery, it’s going to be a gap year for me – I can’t see myself being taken on for Midwifery in Clearing, and although people keep telling me to keep hoping, I need to be realistic now – hope is all well and good, but it’s not going to get me a university place. Let’s look at the facts – I have a personal statement completely geared towards doing Drama, I have no work experience in Midwifery and no-one had any idea I even had an interest in it until last month. In Clearing, I’ll be up against people with midwifery-geared personal statements AND work experience – they just didn’t get past the interviews for their first choices. Being realistic here, I really don’t stand a chance.

I’m trying not to let it get to me – I hate moaning, although I seem to do a lot of it – and I’m determined not to let it spoil the next few months, but it’s so hard. I’m getting so confused – being bombarded with stuff about University and seeing these kids on TheStudentRoom who’ve had their whole lives planned out for ages and have every chance of achieving that and having a simple, smooth application process, getting into Oxbridge and not sitting up, wide awake because they can’t sleep knowing that they need to make a decision. And then I have people telling me to keep hoping and relax, but I can’t! I don’t want to keep hoping until the morning of results day, when I wake up (if I even get to sleep) and realizing that when all these people are looking forwards to going to university, I have nowhere to go – if I take a gap year, the most productive thing that will come of it will be getting to tenth prestige on Call Of Duty because there’s a pathway to nursing course taking place nearby, but I really don’t like the sound of it. There’s no jobs available and basically, nothing I can do. I need to go to university this year, otherwise my only other option is go back to college, and there’s no way I’m going back to that hell hole. It’s a struggle to keep going in day after day at the moment!

I’m really at a loss as to what to do. I had two offers and three interviews for drama-related courses which I applied for in a rush because I knew if I put it off I’d keep changing my mind (I guess that’s the definition of irony), and I declined them all and now I’m stuck in a rut. Why didn’t I leave things as they were? Yes, I probably wouldn’t have been thrilled with my course, BUT I’D BE ABLE TO SLEEP RIGHT NOW!

The temptation is there to just jump at the first course I see in Extra/Clearing that looks as though it might interest me and spend a year doing that until I can sort out what I want to do next – but then I have to work out finances and applying all over again and the same thing might happen and there’s so many things that could go wrong.

All I want to do is hide in a corner and let other people make my decisions for me. I’m 17, and what I choose to do now will have an impact on my future, both in the short term and the long term – I don’t feel old enough for these decisions!