facing a crossroads in my life

In just over a week’s time I’ll be starting Glasgow Caledonian University to complete my business degree.

It’s almost seven years since I stopped my degree with just two modules to go.  I had recently found out that I was expecting twins, and the pregnancy took its toll on me, causing perpetual nausea and exhaustion.  There was no way I could complete my degree back then.

Of course, once the girls were born, my life was a blur of constant feeding, changing and fretting for a while.  No time for study then.

When I returned to work, part-time, when the girls were just over a year old, our busy regimented life left no room for study.

When the girls were just coming up for three years old, I finally returned to my textbooks and was determined to finish my degree.  I took my Financial Management books with me on a family holiday to Menorca.  Thankfully my in-laws had come with us, so I had the opportunity to study my textbooks by the pool for a couple of hours per day.

However, all this studying during my precious holiday hours ended up being in vain, as I had to cancel my exam on my return home.  We had arrived back in Glasgow airport just in time to get caught up in the Glasgow Airport Terror Attack, and Hubby was one of the brave men who had tackled the terrorists.  You can read more about this in a previous post here.  Anyway, as you will appreciate, I was in no fit state to sit my exam after all the stress of this. 

I never returned to my studies.  I went back to working full-time hours, and my life was pretty full and hectic.  However, my un-finished degree was a weight hanging round my neck – a piece of un-finished business, requiring my attention.

Now in my late thirties, I feel an urgency to complete my studies before my landmark 40th birthday. And so I find myself returning to university to sit three modules between September and May.  I will initially be attending university one evening per week, but this will increase to two nights per week after Christmas.

Now that I have committed myself to completing my degree, I am looking further ahead to my future options.  I would like to do a postgraduate course, and I am very interested in pursuing a career in education.  I am looking at the possibility of either doing a PGDE Primary, a PGDE Secondary or the TQFE (Tertiary Education). 

My head is now bursting with trying to work out how to make this a reality.  It would involve me having to give up my job to study full-time, which would mean a major overhaul of our finances.  I have some serious numbercrunching  and soul-searching to do.  I just feel that if I don’t jump at the chance now, I’ll never do it!  If it all works out, I will certainly be the perfect illustration for “Life begins at forty!”