Thirty Months

Around thirty months ago, I began to blog. I'm afraid to say the blog lasted around five months before I gave up trying to keep it up. This, The (im)Mature Student, is that blog.
Why did I stop? I felt I had little of interest to say, and my university workload was higher than I had experienced before. Why am I suddenly returning to it? I want to put my thoughts down in writing, develop my communication skills, and explore my ability to write for an audience.

"What's new?", I hear nobody but myself asking. Since you ask so nicely, I'll give you the briefest* of updates.  (*Briefest may yet mean quite the opposite). 

I'm now a third of the way into my thirties. I'm living in Portland, Oregon (USA), while I complete the 'study abroad' requirement of my degree program. This is the third year of four. I'm contemplating career options and possibly continuing in academia upon graduation. My personal life has meandered from singledom to being coupled up, and back, with chicanes and road-bumps along the way; much the same as it is for so many people. My family life has had its ups and downs too. Estrangement from my biological father was not the greatest highlight of life, but the addition of a niece to go with my nephew rates very highly; being an uncle is rather good fun, getting to spoil and make giddy a couple of lovely young souls, then hand them back when there is poop to dispose of. 

What about those career plans? The advice I received prior to applying to read American Studies has since become redundant. I can no longer take my degree forward to study for a PGCE in a couple of secondary education subjects, as universities now have such competition for places as to be able to demand a subject-specific degree in both history and English. Primary education would be a possibility, though I'm not sure runny noses, peed pants, and tears over pulled hair is going to be my thing, and I would owe it to the young lives for whom I would have a formative influence to have the utmost dedication and motivation; a career in education is not simply an opportunity to earn a wage! 
    At this stage I am looking into possibilities for postgraduate study that will open up opportunities in print and online media. John McCarthy, a British journalist who became a name known around the world for his captivity in Beirut during the 1980s, was an American Studies graduate. This demonstrates that, combined with a relevant postgraduate degree, the bachelor's degree I will earn is not a dead duck. Broadcast journalism is one option, as is freelance writing.
    My career considerations are somewhat complicated by a mobility disability that limits the time I can spend sat, or standing, and need flexibility in work patterns that few employers will be able to offer in a full-time position. The best options seem to be finding part-time work to cover the basic necessities of an inexpensive life, and carve out the life of writing that I dream of.

It is with these thoughts that I look to the future. In the mean-time the present is priority number one. Complete my year abroad, hopefully with success, then return to the UK to complete my bachelor's degree. In around nine months time I will be able to start casting my net to see what sort of career choices I have. 

Regardless of what the future holds, I intend to write about it now and then. The main body of my blogging will, however, be about other matters of student life, and thoughts on the rest of the world which (according to my ex fiancee, and I think she may actually have been right, however little I wish to admit it...) doesn't revolve around me.