Gaining independence while gaining a new hairstyle (Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?)

Member Name: thriftyminx13

Product:	Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?
Date:	08/01/09 (88 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Meet different people

Disadvantages: Nobody to wake you in the morning

It is ten years since I started University and six years since I left. It all feels like time has passed in a blink of an eye.

When I was at school in Northern Ireland I never had a doubt in my head that I would not go to university. I don't know where this belief came from as my mum at the time was the only member of the family who had went to uni but I just had no other plan.

When it came to picking what university I wanted to go to, I knew that I wanted to leave Northern Ireland due to a combination of not liking my parents (who does at that age) and I wanted a change. We had some universities that came around the school to talk about their uni and why it was so good. One of these was the University of Glasgow. I had never been to Glasgow, let alone Scotland but for some reason that I still don't know, I felt drawn to it. So I applied. The course I applied for was even more strange "Molecular and Cellular Pathology." My only reasoning looking back at why I chose this course was because my gran used to leave serial killer magazines as bedtime reading as I was growing up (not even joking!).

When it came to studying I wasn't very good, I used to be when I was younger but as I got older I got lazy. Looking back I realise I just had a different method of study that what is taught at school. My results came and I needed 3 C's. I got 2 C's and a D. With trepidation I rang the university. I naively thought that the grades required were absolute but they seemed happy enough.

The day came when my parents drove me to Queen Margaret Halls in Glasgow and I literally cried being driven into Glasgow, not because I was upset but I was happy, I could smell independence.

Going away to university was the single best decision I made. I grew up a lot quicker than if I'd stayed at home and I learnt to organise my time and myself. There were bumps along the way, when I decided to give myself a new fringe that earnt me the name ewok and when I got to university the course I had wanted to do no longer existed!!

I believe now this was fate. I ended up doing a fantastic course which my career is now in. If you have a gut instinct about going away somewhere and your parents try to convince you to stay, stand up and be counted. If their reasoning is fair and you feel that you will gain independence still living at home or nearby, then do that. However, when I used to come home for visits I immediately reverted to being 15 and was totally spoiled.

I ended up moving back to Northern Ireland, as much a surprise to me as to my parents and I love it. But, if I hadn't moved away then I wouldn't have really seen as much of life, exposed to cultures, new foods (tofu!) and budgeting.

Advantages - Standing on your own two feet and see some of life.

Disadvantages - No money, no clean clothes, no sense!!

Summary: go go go. you only live once.