ElJay, I Missed You!

[chibikelzafox]

Okay, I hope this will be the very last in the long lime of 'O Hai, I'm Back Again *Swiftly Disappears For Another Month*' posts. I basically went through a very tough time over the last three or four months and didn't really update much as I didn't feel much like ranting... I didn't want to remind myself about how difficult things were.

If

Comments

[wilky_wit]

Wow, that sure is a lot of news. Sorry about your aunts, that must've been awful losing both of them so close to each other. And I don't blame you for leaving school, there's no point in staying with it if it's hurting your mind more than helping it. Lots of people take some time off for personal reasons and start up again.

(My best friend is in a similar spot. She started at one college when she lived with her mother, couldn't stand her mother anymore, went to live with her dad, started at a college by that house, her dad died, she went to live with her godparents, started at a college by that house, and now she can't stand her godfather and is moving in with her boyfriend across the country. So she'll be on her fourth school at least before she gets a degree.)

Congratulations to you and Jason!! It's a gorgeous ring, and I'm sure you're both wonderfully excited.

[chibikelzafox]

Yeah, a LOT has happened while I've been away. Losing my aunts was bad enough without all the petty infighting it caused but things seem to have resolved. It didn't help me much, worrying about what Dad was going through and if Graham had turned the whole family against him :/

Four colleges! Blimey - wouldn't that be really expensive? I don't know how things work in the US; do you get the fees paid for you, which you then have to pay back later, or is it all up front? I hope it works out for your friend though; sounds like she's had a worse time of it.

We're excited :) Like I say it'll be a while yet before marriage/our own place/etc, but for now we're just enjoying each-other's company and everything's great there. Even when the rest of my life is messing up, I have him <3

[wilky_wit]

It's possible to get a lot of your education paid for through grants and scholarships (I get enough money that it's like I paid for one year of schooling and got three years free), but my friend's grades were never outstanding and she didn't do any extracurricular activities, so I think most of her costs have been out of pocket. Her first two schools were little community colleges where she only took a couple classes, so I don't think it cost too terribly much. And after her dad died she got a ton of insurance money, so the cost of switching schools isn't that big of a deal to her anymore. She's basically able to pay for her entire education without even having to get a job.

[chibikelzafox]

That's good - at least money won't be a major concern for her then :) Over here it's all done by Student Finance, and then you have to pay off your debt when you've graduated and are in work, earning over a certain amount - £15000 a year, I think it is - and if your salary falls below that threshold payments cease until you're earning enough again.

It's a good system because I'd have never been able to go to university otherwise - or not for a long time, at least. It's good that there's financial help available in the US too; I wondered if it was like the healthcare system where you needed to pay for everything :)

Hopefully it's fourth time lucky for your friend! I'm sure she'll honour her dad's memory and do brilliantly.

[saxsequential]

I'm sorry to hear about your aunts :/ and the hard time you were having before. I don't blame you for being homesick at all; I go home every other weekend myself and I've been here for three years, so being unable to see my parents months on end would be awful. It's good to hear you're happier now though.
And congrats, of course :)

When do you think you'd go back to uni?

[chibikelzafox]

I'm definitely going to go back in the next couple of years, but between now and then I'm going to get a job to gain some work experience and focus on my writing and artwork when I'm not busy with a job. I definitely stil intend on getting a degree, but somewhere where I feel a lot happier and more able to focus :)

[chibikelzafox]

Irish ones are cheaper too; it's just the ones in England that have skyrocketed in price, I think. Happily we still get financial help over here; it just means we'll be paying off the debt afterwards for nearly thrice as long. It's just taken automatically out of our wages, I believe, so I'm cool with that :P

Thanks for the congratulations, m'dear! Hope you're well. Your Twitter account has you as still in Haggisland; is this true?

[chibikelzafox]

Possibly that's the case in Southern Ireland, but up in the north tuition per year is just a smidge below was England's used to be - it's £3375-ish per year at Queen's. It was actually QUB students who protested successfully to keep it at that level. So apparently protests work in ways other than as a platform for angry people to be angry.

Nifty! I see Haggisland has grown on you :P It's a brilliant, beautiful place, indeed. Would you be returning to the Edinburgh area?

Same here! I still have your vinyls and stuff - I believe you sent me your address in a message on ElJay so I'll just need to figure out international postage. That's something I've never done before :P

[song_of_copper]

Wow, what a rollercoaster you've been on! So sorry to read of your bereavements - and the surrounding drama cannot have helped. :-(

But on a happier note, congratulations on your engagement. <3 You have a diamond there in more ways than one! ;-)

As for university, that set up would have been tough on anyone. Plus, it has to feel right in order for anything useful to enter your brain! ^_^ Once things have settled down a bit I'm sure you'll know exactly what to do on that front. :-)

Best of luck to you with everything. :-D

[chibikelzafox]

It was a crazy time - probably one of the worst I've had. I'm glad it's over and everyone seems to be getting along, but I'm still baffled as to how everything's gone back to being perfectly fine and nobody's even apologised :l I suppose as long as the drama llama stays far away then that's all that matters.

Thank you! <3 I still can't believe sometimes that I'm actually engaged, but I'm mightily chuffed nonetheless :)

Exactly; I'm going to wait a little while, maybe a UCAS application cycle or two, to decide where to go next. University and a degree is still firmly on my list of life goals, but like you say, I need a less awkward set-up where I'm happy and therefore able to work to the best of my ability. I know I could do very well as on minimal effort at Queen's I was achieving a high 2.1 on average; my heart just wasn't in it and I guess deep down I knew that from the very beginning.

Hope things are groovy on your end! :)