You Can't Always Get What You Want...

… but if you try sometimes, you just might find... you get what you need!

Well it's game set and match for another chapter in my life; University is over and it's time to go on to bigger and better things, hopefully. There have been many ups and downs over the years, but I feel I can say with some confidence that the ups have definitely outnumbered all the downs and all in all I've had a great time.

I've dedicated the last four years of my life to achieving a Bachelors of Engineering in perhaps one of the hardest subjects possible. With many ups and downs, the time is finally over. Here's a summary of the last four years:

My first year was the first time I'd lived on my own 5500 miles away from my family. I remember thinking when I first came to University that I was OK with it and I was strong enough to shrug it off. Looking back I think I realise how much it actually affected me. I've come a long way from the shy boy that arrived at Southampton in 2006. I laugh when I look back at my feeble attempts at appearing confident and outgoing, I wasn't. And it took me two years to settle in to my new life.

Repeating a year always makes you feel stupid, especially when everyone else around you seems to cope fine with the work, but I have to say that repeating second year was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I suddenly found myself in a very familiar setting, studying familiar material, and managed to gain a level of confidence I'd never reached before. I felt happy and confident enough to go out and meet new people, and I manage to land myself in the most awesome and friendly Martial Arts club I could ever have hoped for. Jiu Jitsu was vital in helping me keep my sanity at University and it helped me gain the weight I needed to not look like I was wasting away. The regular exercise made me fitter and happier, and the social aspect of the club helped me make a great group of friends and got me out of the house three times a week.

Third year (of the degree) was as amazing as I could have hoped. I had a great group for my Design Project and my Individual Project (dissertation to everyone else) was really interesting. I did some very interesting modules and re-enforced the friendships and confidence I had gained the year before. I met some great fresher’s this year who I'm sad to leave; this year has made University that fantastic place everyone seems to reminisce about, and I'm going to miss it a lot!

Another highlight of this year has been that I spent it in a fantastic relationship with the most amazing person I've ever met. I travelled a lot, finally finding a use for all those air-miles, and had some wonderful experiences I'll never forget. This past year has been practically perfect in every way.

My results at the end of this year haven't been as amazing as I had hoped, but they're good enough, and I now have a degree. I'm confident that had I dedicated myself entirely on my studies, I would have done a lot better, but I pride myself in being a well rounded person and so distributed my efforts evenly across all my activities. I am proud of what I have achieved and am thankful to everyone who was able to join me on my journey.

Now that this chapter is coming to a close (I suppose it's not over until the Graduation Ceremony) I am looking forward to what lies ahead. Come September I have the absolute luxury of going to an amazing Flight Training School in the south of Spain. I will finally embark on my destiny to become an airline pilot. Not many people have the benefits and good fortune to follow their dreams, and I feel I owe it to them to achieve mine. I have the opportunity to fulfil a long-life childhood dream of becoming a pilot and doing what I love for the rest of my life.

I can't wait!

CDO - That's OCD in the right order...

I took part in a conversation today all about perfectionism and mannerisms. I'm not going to lie, a lot of people often say that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. I like things to be tidy and clean. I'm not compulsive, but I do get fed up of mess quite quickly. There are also things that bother me greatly, and I occassionally find it quite upsetting when I see people doing things... well wrong. Most cases I think comes mainly down to people touching my things, and not touching them or taking care of them in the same way I would.

I mainly have this trouble with my brother and sister, and often find being at home quite... well upsetting. But I've learnt a lot really, and I know people don't do these things to spite me, or to hurt me. It just never occurs to them to do it my way because they're not me. I guess this just serves as telling you a little bit more about me, but the main reason for this post was amazement today at how a 40 to 50 year old woman is only just learning this, after decades of bickering and arguing with her husband and daughters.

I was contemplating not posting this, because well it was quite random and you didn't quite need to know. But there's a reason to my madness, and that was to flesh out this post a bit, and tell you that I managed to fiddle the dates on some posts so they match more or less the time I travelled to those locations. So my previous posts proclaiming I hadn't posted since November is no longer quite true. Scroll down to see if there's something you haven't read before :)

Land of clogs and stuff...

Easter... a great time, mainly because I get 4 weeks off from Uni which is more than enough time to spend it leisurely trotting the globe. However, final year tends to put a damper on things.

I had planned to write my dissertation during these 4 weeks, well firstly finish the damn project and then write it up. To be honest, that did not go as well as I had planned, but it all worked out in the end.

The interesting part comes on Easter weekend, when I went for 4 days to Copenhagen. When I went around western Europe after finishing school Copenhagen was by far one of my favourite cities. It's so small and quaint, it's cosy and cute; it's a fantastic city all-round. I took* a special certain someone there, and we had a fantastic time. The hotel claimed to be 4 stars, and had the pictures to prove it, but the room left way too much to be desired.
Add to that the unforseen hiccup that in Denmark everybody get 5 days off for Easter... that's from the thrursday to Monday off. So almost everything, bar a few coffee shops and restaurants was shut for all but one or two of the days we were there. Needless to say that sucked epically. But we still managed to have a great time. I got in touch with some neighbours from my London days who now live in Copenhagen and they invited us for dinner. Their house was so small and fantastically Danish, I loved it, and the food was great as always.