At the beginning of the year I was full of hope and promise on an Art & Design course at Wigan and leigh college, I also had an unsuccessful art business with its gears slowly grinding, and grinding slower by the week. I was a member of a progressive group of social entrepreneurs called PULSE which has disappeared to my knowledge. I left the course in march due to financial difficulties, and also the realization that to have a career in the art industry I would probably need to leave Wigan and find a larger market for design somewhere in the city, which I didn't want to do, and so I signed back on JSA (Job seekers allowance)
After signing back on and floating merrily through life at this point along rolled my 21st birthday and with it, a few startling realizations. If I wasn't at college age and have no opportunity for financial help there, I would need to move on to university. this of course wasn't a natural progression as it might seem, I was actually convinced to move onto university by my two close friends Antony and Janet, who spent at least forty minutes at the end of a dance class talking me into looking for a uni course, which I then did. I found a course, which I wrote about in my classic blog here. I filled out my UCAS 'clearing' form (discount courses they couldn't fill I imagine) and unfortunately was told by three different Uni's that I was under qualified, there's £15 I'll never see again.
But all was not lost! The administration I spoke to regarding the course advised me to look for an Access to HE course, designs on getting people with low qualifications into uni, and low and behold, I found a spot available at the University of Bolton. So on October 13th I started my first day as a university student, with all its expenses and labour, and soon I was well into the swing of late assignments and early mornings and missed trains, it was bliss. I say was of course, I mean is bliss, as the course will continue until its conclusion at the beginning of summer when hopefully, I will have an access diploma. At this point, I am very confused, when I joined the course at the beginning of october I was fully intending to carry the subject onto psychology degree level, obtain a degree in psychology and go find work in that field, however over the holiday period, my mind has done back flips and has landed somewhere else entirely.
It could have been some bad mince pie I have eaten, or perhaps its all a dream, I don't yet know, but my ambition now is to go onto a Performing Arts degree, hopefully at Salford Uni. I agonised over this decision (as you can slightly see in the previous post) and now even if I was forced to do the psyche degree, I couldn't put my heart into it, because its not really what I want now. I mean psychology is very interesting, but as a career it would probably destroy me.
So here it is, full circle, as a new years resolution I think I'm going to stop making long term plans, and just take life as it comes. over the holidays I've lost 9 pounds through not eating, I attribute my loss of appetite to the life changing decision I made (and due to weight loss my stretch marks are itchy as fuck) and I have no intention on being under that kind of stress again until my degree starts, I have enough to worry about in finishing the year, let alone starting a new one!
I really do have no idea what I'm doing, apart from going out of my mind. then again, my mind wasn't exactly the most straight forward place to be in the first place.
Just take it as it comes, and have a happy new year!
