Best Laid Plans And All That ………

Well, to say that the last 24 hours have been challenging is a bit of an understatement. Yesterday was A Level results day and like thousands of anxious parents and students we woke up with some apprehension. DD came down at 9am in tears to say that she checked on the UCAS site and found out she was in Clearing. After a quick tearful outburst she hurried to her college to find out exactly what the damage was. For those of you not in the loop, clearing is when you’re matched to available courses for your exam results. Usually, it’s because you didn’t get the right grade or UCAS points for a particular course at a particular Uni. Occasionally, it’s because you did better than anticipated.

In LJ’s case she didn’t get the expected grade in English. She had a tough time on some of the questions during the exam and I think, possibly, deep down she was panicking about the final result. So with her hopes of studying English with Journalism at Lincoln Uni dashed, it was time for a rethink. What were her options? Well, she could redo her A Level in English, but that would mean another 2 years, only this time as an adult student. Do a foundation course for a year then transfer to a BA course for years 2 and 3. Or, change courses completely.

She opted for the third choice. So rather than English with Journalism it’s just Journalism. To be honest, when we were looking at courses last year, I thought she would’ve gone for a BA in Journalism. It was her idea to switch to a combined course with English as she thought it would give her more opportunities once she graduated. Who could foretell this would happen. So after searching for open courses in Journalism, a short list was made and after checking out the course details, entrance criteria, two Unis were selected as suitable potentials. University College Falmouth in Cornwall and Middlesex University, to the North of London. Both offered her a place, all she had to do was to decide which one to accept.

As LJ mainly wants to go into print journalism, she has opted for the course at Middlesex University as she feels this is going to be better for her. She’s happy with the choice and really, that’s all that matters. Obviously, we’re disappointed for her, but sometimes these things happen for a good reason. If she struggled with parts of the English exam paper at A Level, how would she deal with the degree paper. This may prove to be a blessing in disguise. Middlesex is also closer to home and as going through clearing means there is no on campus accommodation available, LJ would need to find private accommodation nearby, which, in North London, would’ve worked out expensive. So she has opted to stay at home and commute from Essex to Trent Park Campus, in between Oakwood and Enfield. She hopes that after her first year she’ll have made some nice friends and then move into shared accommodation for her second and third years as she would’ve planned had she gone to Lincoln.

So, we have LJ home for another year which, of course, isn’t a problem. It means George and I will have to wait another year to get our own bedroom back (that’s a different story altogether, folks). She seems happier today with the new choice she’s made and is looking forward again to this new chapter in her life. As I said to her, life has a habit of dealing you a bad hand every now and then. But it’s these challenges that help to mould us into the people we become, so we should embrace them. I know that both George and I are better people because of the bad times we’ve been through.

So, panic over.

Who said parenting was easy.