So Life doesn’t seem to be getting better for me so I’ve decided to make a decision that will drastically change my future.
Because of some problems I had with scheduling last semester and my lack of financial stability Hamline has decided to pull all of my financial aid for the 2009-2010 school year. Not only will I not be able to afford paying for college I won’t have the ability to make even enough to support myself since Hamline on top of that is next year shortening the available student worker positions.
So the decision that I feel that will be best for me right now is to leave Hamline and to go to another school. I feel terrible that I have to make that particular decision but with the current situation of my parents being divorced and my mother moving to a new place and both my parents not in a financial situation to help me out in any way, I feel that I have to take matters into my own hands and do what would be right for me.
I’m moving.
The moving part isn’t as drastic as the where part. I have decided that in a couple of months I will be moving to Scotland, United Kingdom and out of the United States.
Wha?! May be the response many people might make when they see that I have made this decision. Crazy…I thought I would be at Hamline for five years, finish my education degree and THEN move to Scotland…but because of recent financial matters having to do with Hamline an my lack of the funds to pay for such an institution. That’s not happenin’
At twenty years old I feel that I am old enough to be more than able to be living on my own. I have for over a year and a half now I feel that I am old enough to make such a decision.
It’s is very interesting that I am considering making this move Again when I had planned it before when I was in High school. My plan right after high school was to move to Scotland and go to school there…but I ended up staying to be closer to my family. This past year I’ve realized that my relationship with my family can remain the same regardless of where I am. Even though my mom was recently diagnosed with Cancer I feel that it is important for me to leave now.
A lot of people in my life may be thinking WHY SCOTLAND? well, there are many reason why I could be picking Scotland as my destination to get away from my current life situation and to try to start anew…some of those reasons may be that:
- -I have a significant other in Scotland who is my closest and dearest friend of 6 or so years and who I have been dating for almost a year in Oct.
- -Or that I had gotten accepted into a college in Scotland to study abroad but because of my lack of money to pay for the venture I was unable to go.
- -Or because I feel that moving away from my problems with my family may solve them.
But my reasoning behind the move is much better than that…last year I took a trip to Scotland in order to visit Craig and his family. While I was in Edinburgh Scotland I absolutely fell in love with the City. I feel that traveling to the UK will open up a doorway to the kind of lifestyle I’d like to lead later in life…traveling all around the world and exploring new cultures while I am still young, and happy and physically able to do so.
It has always been my dream to travel the world and I feel that my lack of resources financially as a child made it difficult for my parents to take us kids on vacations. I’ve never been to a tropical island with my family.
Luckily as I got older my mother worked her butt off so that I’d be able to go with my orchestra to such places as Saint Louis and Greece, Germany, Northern Ireland and later to Scotland where I plan to be moving. She gave me a sneak peak at what many people in the United States often find themselves missing out on all their lives. I don’t want to be stuck in America my WHOLE LIFE! I know people who don’t know the world outside their city block and they don’t seem to be striving to make anything more of themselves. I want to see what branch out and be the ambitious social person I’ve always been known to be.
I can’t say that being closer to Craig and his family isn’t a plus in this whole situation. Craig and I have been dating for almost a year it will be a year in October, he is and has been my dearest and closest friend for many years now. His family has become like a family to me. I really appreciate the way his family has taken care of me. Craig’s mom treated me like her own child when I was there and I was lucky that she was able to send me recipes Craig’s favorite dishes before she died because I want to try them out when I get over there. Craig’s dad was a father figure that I haven’t seen in my own life for many years. Craig’s father is strong and inviting and he always has a great story to tell. I really appreciate how Craig and his dad get along. When I hugged Craig’s dad at the airport as I left Scotland to head to Ireland he asked me to come back soon. I will always remember that moment :D. Craig’s sister Claire’s being so close in age to both Craig and I have made it easier for me to get to know and like her, she’s awesome at shopping and I hope we can spend more time together when I get there, she is a great friend to Craig while he is living in Dundee and she has a lot of will power and strength that I admire. I’d think that Claire was Craig’s age at times in the way she acts. They are like twins and I love their relationship as siblings.
As for Craig, I love him and being nearer to him could only be a positive thing because six months apart from the one you love is a hard thing to do. I can see myself spending the rest of my life with him.
When I was applying for my Visa I realized everything I had to do in order to make the move as smooth as possible.
the first thing was that i was going to have to determine my goal in going to Scotland. Was I going there to Study, to work or to reside until I wanted to make up my mind on what I wanted to do with my life. Considering my current financial situation being the reason why I needed to withdraw from Hamline University in the first place, I found it very important that I am financially stable before I try applying to another college. So I decided going to Scotland to study right away may not be the best decision. Instead I want to work for awhile and get myself on my feet in the culture and in my new residence. second, I did not want to apply for a Visa and say that I am only going to Scotland to work, because at the moment I do not have a job lined up but I do have a job in the works for later. So I have made up my mind that I am going to Scotland to live.
People keep asking me why I can’t just stay in Minneapolis with my family or in Saint Paul “to live” but I feel that Scotland is the only place where I will be able to find myself and get myself out of the spiritual and emotional funk I am currently in. I am constantly depressed and lonely even though I am constantly surrounded by people. While I’m in school I have become a Hermit who only comes out of my den when I have something to do with members of my sorority or on a class project. I am a very social person and I need attention and I need companionship and friendship and I found no one last year who stuck around me long enough to make a connection that was more than just skin deep and temporary. Even though I will throughly miss my Delta Tau sisters and the members of Theta Chi I know that I will remain friends with them even after I go because the lasting family bonds I’ve made with them and the memories will never fade when I have left. I will make an effort to write and keep in touch with all of them while I am gone, they have truely gotten me through this last year of school.
My relationship with my siblings has gotten progressively worse because I have somewhat of an overbearing mother complex. I was raised in an environment where I often needed to take care of things myself. If I needed to get somewhere I needed to find my own ride. I would stay after school doing any activity that I could get involved in so that I wouldn’t have to go home and deal with the stresses and the hardships of not having any money. I remember going home to a house where there was no running water, gas, or electricity. I wouldn’t invite my friends over because I was ashamed to show them that I was living in a 3 bedroom apt with my mom and three (4 w/ sky) siblings. We would burn candles at night for light and do whatever we had to do to cook and get hot water to bathe and get ready. I remember going to school and doing my hair early in the morning because I couldn’t at home. Because I was raised in that kind of environment I became a more mature female figure in my house. I worked, cooked, and did chores that needed to get done. I provided money for field trips and stayed home to watch over sick children…I even disciplined. It was these acts that separated me from my siblings and created much rivalry between us, during the time that my brother Tyler is supposed to be rebelling against his mother he is rebelling against ME his sister because I have become his mother figure. He no longer takes any orders from my own mother because since she isn’t strong enough to defend herself against my father he feels that she is unworthy of such a position he considers her more of a friends. He feels that he is the real head of the household even though he acts as a boy in a man’s body with anger issues like my father. I feel that I have taken too much from my brother like my mother took and took and took from my father. I am tired of being treated wrong and I feel that the healthiest way for me to escape the drama is for me to leave the equation until Tyler realizes that I am not his mother but I am his sister.
When it comes to Cynthia and Eric I wish i could be a better part of their lives. They are stuck in the middle of something that is bigger than them and I hope I can be a good example for them in telling and showing them that there is a way to get out of it all and to be happy. I think Eric is on his journey to discovering that on his own and I hope that Cynthia isn’t a lost cause. I am following my dreams and the messed up situation that I came out of hasn’t hindered my judgment.
This is one of my main problems because I lacked friends who were willing to venture into Minneapolis to come see me I found that all I would do when my family did have power would be to sit on my computer and chat with the person who has become my best friend Craig. My siblings would treat me life garbage because that was the example my dad left behind as an impression for anybody who helped and supported my mom. Craig got me through some of my hardest times and it was his encouragement that would help me wake up in the morning. He made me feel special and he knows me better than my mother even does. Craig was the reason I began taking pictures and wanting to document as much of my life as possible. I would only write blogs with hope that he would read them. I would only post pictures with hopes that he would see them. It got to the point where I would check to see if he was online every few hours and that my mother would change the password to the computer and give me a bedtime so that I wouldn’t stay up all night talking to him about GOD KNOWS WHAT. Craig became to me my childhood and the only fun I found that I could have.
Yeah, I did plays and got involved in music…but that was only to help me overcome my loneliness.
When I was in Scotland last year everything seemed to be perfect…everyday was an adventure and all the pieces fell into place. Even though I had some hard times {losing me passport for a short time} and feel a tad bit homesick I never felt the loneliness that I’ve felt being at home and being hurt by my brothers and sisters. Or being in school at my dorm and having my own roommate move out on me for no expected reason and then having no one invite or include me in anything. Mel was my only friend in the first semester but even her and I drifted apart. People like Kayla S would be nice to me then would try to spread all of my personal private secrets to everyone.
I looked forward to Sundays because I could go to Church, Church has been my saving GRACE this past semester and has saved me many times from wanting to disappear from the world all together. Singing in church this past year has given me a purpose and people like Mikey Boosalis, Jacob Babcock and Kyle Parsons have been there to get my back and be there to listen to my rant and hug me when i cry and give me the wisdom that they have I remember Mikey turning to me and telling me some story about him being alone during a church service and I had no clue what he meant and how it purtained to my loneiness situation but it was the way that he said it that lifted my spirits and gave me hope and put a smile on my face. Jake Babcock was always there to let me rant about how life sucked and he told me ways to make it least suck and Kyle was my spiritual angel who appeared at one of my lowest points spiritually to pick me up. It will be people like them who I will miss the most but it is people like them who I will quote and remember as I make new friendships and trek new pathes.
I need to escape the drama of my father’s situation and how he wants to create a friendship with me even though he has done so much to hurt my mother in the past even though she did what did not only for her children’s betterment but for the betterment of her husband my father as well. She did all she could to offer him opportunities to become a better person…she took therapy, she made us kids take therapy and we realized that we had found closure with ourselves but my dad had refused it. I’ve seen him do wicked unGodly things and I’m not ready to accept him back into my life just yet.
So I am moving to Scotland and it is the best decision that I feel that I’ve made in a long while. Tell me if you think I’m wrong and for what reasons…I’d like to know your opinion on this whole situation.
Who?