Dreams

Hello! 

I hope you are all doing well. I guess I'll start of this post with the question "What are your dreams?". I'm pretty sure everyone has dreams, dream jobs, dream places to visit, dream possessions! Have your dreams stayed the same since you were a little girl/boy, or have they changed?

My dreams sure have changed over the years. As a young chubby girl, I used to dream of being famous, like any little girl would. I'm not sure what my dreams were before the age of 7, but when my mother left my father, I used to visit every Tuesday and Sundays. My cousin's lived at the house I went to, and I used to gather them both up, along with my sister and host singing shows. I was awful. A little bit stuck up, and bossy! I definitely couldn't sing, and still can't! Cringe! 

Chubby! Around 5/6 years old!

 I used to love Disney Channel as a child, I stayed up past my supposed bed time to watch a show called "Flipper the new adventures". It was made in 1995, I'm pretty sure I was around 8/9 when I first started watching it. The show would come on at 12am, pretty late for a primary schooler!
I knew from then on that I wanted to be a marine biologist. The lady's on the show said they were a marine biologist, and of course I wanted to work with dolphins and be just like them.
Little did I know that I would actually still want to be a marine biologist. Although not working with dolphins.

Growing up through high school, I had a tough time with my studies. I was in the bottom classes (set 6) for all of my classes apart from English (set 3). But during my studies, teachers believed in me, and I soared to set 1 and 2 in all my classes. I was placed in lower sets due to my Key Stage 2 SAT scores, but luckily I worked hard and pulled my grades up.

I knew by GCSE time, I would need to think about what subjects I wanted to keep doing, what my future prospects were going to be. I knew it was science, especially marine science. I still wasn't sure what marine biology entailed! I tried getting my science grades up, but to no avail, I stayed at a C grade. You needed a B at GCSE level in both Biology and Chemistry to do them at A level.

I was lucky that my teachers would let me on the course! I went to do my A levels, and they were awful. I worked hard, but I didn't grasp "science". I always thought it was me, that I was incapable, even though I managed to get a B in Geography. I got E's in A level biology and Chemistry. Not good at all, and it didn't look good for my university options.

I wanted to remain in Newcastle, and study marine biology at the university there, but they required 3 B's in Biology, Chemistry and another subject. I did a 1 week summer school at Newcastle university to lower my entry grade to 3 C's but sadly I still didn't obtain that. My other choice was to move cities. The only place that would accept me with my grades was Edinburgh Napier University. Even then I didn't match their entry grades of 180 UCAS points, I only got 160!

I went on to get firsts in all my first year classes. It was a four year course so the first year was similar to A Levels. To this day, I still believe that my science teachers were at fault. I remember them leaving us to work through text books instead of actually "teaching" and explaining things, etc. My Chemistry teacher once left the room for 20 minutes as we were working with Phenol. Phenol is highly dangerous, even a drop on the skin could really hurt you. He even left his coffee cup next to the jar (ridiculous!).

So I soared through my undergraduate degree doing Marine and Freshwater Biology, struggling sometimes, but managed to pass every exam and coursework. I ended up with a good 2:1, which I was proud of.

At the end of the course, I had no idea what I wanted to do! I applied for jobs but got rejections, which led me to apply for a Masters degree at Heriot Watt University to do Marine Biotechnology and Biodiversity. I soared through the year, and got pretty decent grades, and ended up with a merit. Again, I was proud of, not the highest grade you can get, but I worked my butt off the whole year.

Sadly, I wish I thought before doing the masters. It was £4.5 for the year, and I had no help with funding due to being English. I paid for the whole course on my own. During my time studying, I enjoyed it, but it made me realise that marine biology isn't what I want to do. I am sad that it took me so long to figure it out, with £4.5K out of pocket! I still adore the Ocean's, but I don't think working in Science is for me. Maybe not the research part of it anyways. 

During my field trip to Millport

I am back to square one with my dreams. I have no idea what my dreams actually are career wise. I do know that I want to travel, explore the world, but sadly that involves lots of money, hence why I want to go to Korea, or even China to teach English. It will give me that stepping stone to travel that part of the world.

So I guess, my dreams at the moment is to find an English teaching job in Korea or China. Maybe Thailand...I will cross that border when I get to it!

I guess, 'till next time,