The trials and tribulations of tiffin_bits returning to education

So a little bit of my background, both personal and on the academic side of things:

I am currently 25 years old. I let Sixth Form with okayish A Levels (BCC) back in 2008. Nothing to brag about, but still better than what they could have been considering I spent most of my study leave watching TV I suppose.

At the time I wanted to get into youth work, but was unsure of which route I wanted to take, so I did a gap year working with my (at the time) Church in their youth project. Through this I also achieved a VRQ3 qualification. During my gap year I applied to several universities for Christian youth work BA courses (including Chester and DMU). Also during my gap year, I came to realise a "big thing" about myself.

The Church didn't like it when I came out as gay. Luckily I finished the gap year before I did it. But nothing knocks your confidence back like being told sexual orientation is just a phase, and that the people you trusted and looked to for emotional support were so disgusted with it all. They offered to book me into "gay rehab". That was the final straw. I could no loner work in an environment where we were helping young people find out what it meant to be themselves in the 21st century and yet at the same time have to deny myself that very same self-realisation.

I lost a fair amount of confidence, dignity, and also my faith over a period of time.

After a couple of years of retail work I decided I wanted to go back to Uni but could never work out what I wanted to do. I'd get as far as starting applications to the Open University on a couple of occasions (Humanities BA; LLB) but never got much beyond that.

I was convinced that because I'd left it too late, wanted to carry on with "day to day life", and generally wouldn't be much of an academic, that a bricks-and-mortar institute wasn't for me.

When I applied for Law last September, I got as far as needing confirmation from the OU for SFE to see I'd started the course. But at the same time I suffered a (in hindsight, relatively minor) mental breakdown and it made me realise Law was just a bit beyond my grasp, even if studied at my own pace over double the amount of time a typical student would study for.

So I withdrew my application and went back to the drawing board.

I tried to think of things that they enjoyed: age old words of wisdom say to find a career you enjoy doing and you won't even feel as if you're working.

From a young age I've been fascinated with learning about people from times gone by. I've never had much of a dates and names kind of memory and hated history at school, mainly because being an all boys' school they focused mainly on military aspects of history, not the actual lives of the people.

So in my quest to find a suitable degree subject, I revisited fond childhood memories of visiting castles, prehistoric sites, and the 5 or 6 times I've watched Time Team from the first episode to final one.

And that settled it.

I hope to graduate with at least a 2:2 (I know it's not aiming high, but I guess I don't want to disappoint myself at this early stage) in Archaeology BA in the summer of either 2020 or 2021, depending on whether or not I choose a course with a foundation year.

This blog will be about my planning my return to education, hurdles and plain-sailings, and general musings of being a mature student.

tl;dr
I'm tiffin_bits, been out of education a while due to life stuff happening, hope to start in September 2017. This is my blog.

The trials and tribulations of tiffin_bits returning to education

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you