the "good news everyone!" entry
Hello, DW. I definitely feel better today. I felt better as soon as I wrote down that rant yesterday, actually. My journal is very therapeutic. I'm still sad about losing the card, obviously, but I don't feel angry or frustrated anymore. Which is good.
Anyway. Life updates!
Yesterday was Andrew's birthday. Andrew, his family and I went to dinner the night before, so we kind of celebrated both his and my birthday with a night out. Andrew had to go to work yesterday, so he wasn't here and therefore we couldn't really celebrate. My gift to him was a cover for his Macbook, which he wanted and that is going to turn useful later on. His mom and his sister gave him a couple of gifts as well. Overall Andrew wasn't too fussed about his birthday, but he really wants my birthday to be special. Unfortunately he'll be working on the actual day of my birthday, but he wants us to have dinner somewhere special on Monday (tomorrow), the day before my birthday, which is also his day off. ♥ Andrew's mom and sister also baked us chocolate cake. I forgot how it felt to have someone bake you a cake on your birthday. I'm just so not used to it. But I do love cakes!
I met with my advisor of studies on Thursday. She didn't try to convince me to stay in Law, which was good. I have both good news and not-so-good-but-not-terrible news.
The latter is that I won't be able to change course and transfer my credits over to another course within the same university. At this point in time I'd have to go through what is called "clearing", a process in the UK after the applications have been sent and the offers from the universities have been made, but there's still spaces available? Something like that. I have no idea how it works to be honest and if I got involved in it, I imagine my choice of courses would be fairly limited and I'd have to choose a course in less than a month, since we're already halfway through August. And I really don't want to do that. So I won't be able to do what my mom wanted me to do, and honestly, I think it's better that way. Seems like I will be able to take a gap year after all.
And now, the good news. These two years of law will not be wasted. I'm taking a year out of the course; the university will put my exams on hold for me and will wait for me to take a decision before I go into third year. That way, I can explore my options. I will also retake the exams that I'm missing from second year in December and, when I pass them, I can then leave the university with a Diploma in Legal Practice, which attests that I did a few years of Law, I just didn't get the degree because I decided to leave. My advisor says that a Diploma in Legal Practice looks really good near a Politics, Business or Journalism degree, and Journalism is one of my options. It's very comforting to know that I will get something from these two years and that they weren't entirely wasted. The fact that they have this Diploma in place also makes me think that many people must drop out of Law and so they added the Diploma so that they'd have something after leaving the course.
There's only one module from first year that I didn't pass, though. I sent an email to my advisor of studies about it to ask if I can retake that exam in December as well, but she hasn't replied to me yet. I hope she replies soon.
So all I have to do now is send a letter to the law school, inform them that I'm taking the year out, inform SAAS (who is paying my tuition fees) that I'm taking the year out so they won't accidentally pay the university, and then I'll just pay for those exams myself in December. After passing the exams and getting the Diploma, I'll tell the university that I'm dropping out of the course and at that point I'll finally be able to study/do something that I like! Ah, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's so great having a plan.
The only thing that I sort of don't like about this is the fact that I can't go to lectures for the subjects that I will be examined on in December. That was the whole point of me not going to the resits - since I was sick and I couldn't go to the lectures or tutorials, I had no idea how to approach problems questions and stuff. Some of the lecturers are also changing, so their teaching of the subjects will also change. I will have to get their slides, their tutorials, make sure I have the right books (which might mean I'll have to buy books again, ugh), do all the studying and exercising on my own... yeah. I'll be completely on my own, so I'll have to do double the work. In a way it's even scarier. I won't lie, I'm kinda worried about this. But I also know that now it's August and I have more or less four months to do all this. If I schedule my time and take it nice and slow so that I won't get overly stressed, I should be fine.
So I have a short-term plan until December: study for those exams and look at other courses in the meantime. I'm quite happy about this plan. My mom should be okay with it, because I am still studying for exams; but at the same time it feels like a gap year, because I won't be going to lectures and I'll have plenty of time to figure out what I want to do. So it's sort of a weird mixture between what my mom wanted (study) and what I wanted (take a gap year). I still have to tell my mom about this, but I can't imagine how she wouldn't be okay with it. And I can't start or transfer to another course anyway, because I'd have to go through clearing and there's no way I'm doing that.
My next course of action is to find a local magazine in Dundee or a photographer studio and ask if I can work for them. I need to write down as many reviews of books/games/anime and essays as I can to put in my "clippings" (writing samples to give to magazine editors) and I already have a proto-portfolio ready for my photos. This is really scary, but I have to do this, to try and make the first step, like Andrew says. So yeah, wish me good luck!
This entry was originally posted at http://chibichan.dreamwidth.org/67192.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Anyway. Life updates!
Yesterday was Andrew's birthday. Andrew, his family and I went to dinner the night before, so we kind of celebrated both his and my birthday with a night out. Andrew had to go to work yesterday, so he wasn't here and therefore we couldn't really celebrate. My gift to him was a cover for his Macbook, which he wanted and that is going to turn useful later on. His mom and his sister gave him a couple of gifts as well. Overall Andrew wasn't too fussed about his birthday, but he really wants my birthday to be special. Unfortunately he'll be working on the actual day of my birthday, but he wants us to have dinner somewhere special on Monday (tomorrow), the day before my birthday, which is also his day off. ♥ Andrew's mom and sister also baked us chocolate cake. I forgot how it felt to have someone bake you a cake on your birthday. I'm just so not used to it. But I do love cakes!
I met with my advisor of studies on Thursday. She didn't try to convince me to stay in Law, which was good. I have both good news and not-so-good-but-not-terrible news.
The latter is that I won't be able to change course and transfer my credits over to another course within the same university. At this point in time I'd have to go through what is called "clearing", a process in the UK after the applications have been sent and the offers from the universities have been made, but there's still spaces available? Something like that. I have no idea how it works to be honest and if I got involved in it, I imagine my choice of courses would be fairly limited and I'd have to choose a course in less than a month, since we're already halfway through August. And I really don't want to do that. So I won't be able to do what my mom wanted me to do, and honestly, I think it's better that way. Seems like I will be able to take a gap year after all.
And now, the good news. These two years of law will not be wasted. I'm taking a year out of the course; the university will put my exams on hold for me and will wait for me to take a decision before I go into third year. That way, I can explore my options. I will also retake the exams that I'm missing from second year in December and, when I pass them, I can then leave the university with a Diploma in Legal Practice, which attests that I did a few years of Law, I just didn't get the degree because I decided to leave. My advisor says that a Diploma in Legal Practice looks really good near a Politics, Business or Journalism degree, and Journalism is one of my options. It's very comforting to know that I will get something from these two years and that they weren't entirely wasted. The fact that they have this Diploma in place also makes me think that many people must drop out of Law and so they added the Diploma so that they'd have something after leaving the course.
There's only one module from first year that I didn't pass, though. I sent an email to my advisor of studies about it to ask if I can retake that exam in December as well, but she hasn't replied to me yet. I hope she replies soon.
So all I have to do now is send a letter to the law school, inform them that I'm taking the year out, inform SAAS (who is paying my tuition fees) that I'm taking the year out so they won't accidentally pay the university, and then I'll just pay for those exams myself in December. After passing the exams and getting the Diploma, I'll tell the university that I'm dropping out of the course and at that point I'll finally be able to study/do something that I like! Ah, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's so great having a plan.
The only thing that I sort of don't like about this is the fact that I can't go to lectures for the subjects that I will be examined on in December. That was the whole point of me not going to the resits - since I was sick and I couldn't go to the lectures or tutorials, I had no idea how to approach problems questions and stuff. Some of the lecturers are also changing, so their teaching of the subjects will also change. I will have to get their slides, their tutorials, make sure I have the right books (which might mean I'll have to buy books again, ugh), do all the studying and exercising on my own... yeah. I'll be completely on my own, so I'll have to do double the work. In a way it's even scarier. I won't lie, I'm kinda worried about this. But I also know that now it's August and I have more or less four months to do all this. If I schedule my time and take it nice and slow so that I won't get overly stressed, I should be fine.
So I have a short-term plan until December: study for those exams and look at other courses in the meantime. I'm quite happy about this plan. My mom should be okay with it, because I am still studying for exams; but at the same time it feels like a gap year, because I won't be going to lectures and I'll have plenty of time to figure out what I want to do. So it's sort of a weird mixture between what my mom wanted (study) and what I wanted (take a gap year). I still have to tell my mom about this, but I can't imagine how she wouldn't be okay with it. And I can't start or transfer to another course anyway, because I'd have to go through clearing and there's no way I'm doing that.
My next course of action is to find a local magazine in Dundee or a photographer studio and ask if I can work for them. I need to write down as many reviews of books/games/anime and essays as I can to put in my "clippings" (writing samples to give to magazine editors) and I already have a proto-portfolio ready for my photos. This is really scary, but I have to do this, to try and make the first step, like Andrew says. So yeah, wish me good luck!
This entry was originally posted at http://chibichan.dreamwidth.org/67192.html. Please comment there using OpenID.