I had always wanted my son to go to Uni. I still hope he might want to one day. He is 19 now and just about to start the second year of a HND at our local college here in Northern Ireland. He was outgoing at Primary School and had lots of friends. But when he started secondary school he struggled. Don't think it helped that he went to the third largest school here with 1,300 pupils. Anyway he made a couple of friends, and he still has those same friends. They all started at school on the same day as each other and have been through everything together through thick and thin. The main reason he doesn't want to go to Uni is because he is shy and worries he won't fit in. Neither he nor his friends drink any alcohol and he is conscious of the drink culture at Uni. Where we live is a nice quiet village with the biggest town 6 miles away. But I worry about him. He is stuck in his bedroom far too much . I suggested if he didn't want to live at Uni he could commute and come home each evening. A lot of the local ones do. The nearest Uni to us that does his course is Ulster which is 42 miles away. I'm pretty sure he wishes he had a girlfriend, which he never has had. I told him he'll never meet a girl if he spends his life either at college, work placement or in the house. If his friends were going to uni I'm sure he would happily go too. But sadly his friends all dropped out of their college courses and are signing on the dole,doing bugger all with their lives. I have been lucky that in my career I lived and worked all over the world. It would bloody well break my heart if my son were to never leave our little village his whole life. Sigh.