Count down begins and so it's time for the story to start

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 02 June 2005 10:14:31

Ok, today the formal countdown begins to my final day in part of my job - in preperation for going back to uni part time in September - 30 days (including today). At the moment it kind of feels like I am walking forward towards the edge of a cliff to do some virtual base jumping.

Anyway I have decided over part of this month - not all of it - I am going to tell the story of how I got here. Now before I start I have some ground rules I have set up, not least because of the nature of the net and its public access. First off I will concentrate on my story in a general way & whilst there were lots of supporting characters involved I will try to keep these to a minimum, not least because of the issue of not identifying them. Second point is although it involves my job I will not go into work - apart from the most general comments of areas of the syllabus I was teaching in one part of the job. Finally if it appears it's not working I'll stop - oh and as usual feel free to get interactive and comment at anypoint.

Right installment one:
It's the first Sunday of the new millenium and there is a woman in her late 20's sitting in church wondering what she's going to do with her life. She's doing a part time MA in Political Activism and Social Movements, and trying to write a dissertation - and at this point she still believes it's going to happen. In reality, apart from the one day a week she escapes to uni, she's just another single mum struggling to survive on benefit.

She knows something has to happen and that in the summer when she finishes the study she's going to have to sort out a career. Anyway being the first Sunday of the year it's church text time and it's Jeremiah 29 vs. 11 - "For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (NIV version).

Well she's sitting there thinking that sounds nice, and it's one that might, just might have something to it.
Anyway she's started praying seriously about what comes next and looking through the pages of a certain broadsheet newspaper. One day her eye is drawn towards an advert for a teacher training course and she ignores it, the next week she notices it again and decides that ok sending off for some info doesn't commit her to anything.

Within a couple of months she's had the info, applied, been interviewed and got a place. All seems to be working out - except for one thing - she can't find any accomodation she can afford. This place on the course but nowhere affordable / suitable to live situation has been going on for three months and as she heads of to Greenbelt a fortnight before she's due to start the cours it still looks like she could have been chasing windmills........