So, to sum up, I wasn’t enjoying being a teacher. I didn’t really want to do it, it wasn’t something I’d ever really chosen to do and the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ were wrong. I felt called to do something else, and so I started making plans. Mainly, I started saving. I knew that I needed to save the money for my tuition fees. I also had to get my flat ready to rent it out to provide me with some income while I was in Aberdeen. The biggest questions that remained were, when I should return to university, and which university I should attend.
Because of my connection to the Church of Scotland, I immediately narrowed the list of universities down to those that are accredited by the Church of Scotland. Aside from anything else, it made the list shorter, and that helped! So it was now between the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, St. Andrews and Highland Theological College in Dingwall. Due to the UCAS application system, I was able to apply to all 5, and so I did.
It was pretty clear in my head that I didn’t want to stay with my parents whilst studying for my Divinity degree. Living with your parents at the age of 31 is not where you want to be. (In fairness, it’s probably not a massive picnic for them either!) I gave some consideration to Glasgow and to Edinburgh, but eventually ruled both out. At the time, and probably still, Glasgow didn’t have a great reputation for Divinity. I also hadn’t had a wonderful experience there the first time, and so returning wasn’t really appealing. Similarly I ruled Edinburgh out, but that was largely due to my decision that I didn’t want to stay in the central belt. Actually, having visited Dingwall on 3 or 4 occasions, I was fairly convinced that I was heading to HTC.
In Spring 2016 I was praying on my way home from church. I was asking God where and when He wanted me to go to do my training. As clearly as I’ve ever been aware of God speaking to me, I heard God say (or it popped very clearly into my head - whichever you’re more comfortable with) “Have you considered Aberdeen?”… I replied “erm, not really no… I was planning on going to HTC”…. “You REALLY should think about Aberdeen”… None of that was audible conversation, but I’m convinced it was a clear dialogue with God in which my questions were answered. So when I got home, I looked on the Aberdeen website and there just so happened to be an Open Day coming up in the next couple of weeks. (How fortunate!) So I booked to go. I was incredibly impressed with the day (it probably helped that it was blissfully sunny) and felt incredibly at home. I visited the university, listened to talks from various departments, visited the halls of residence, toured the campus and generally wandered about a bit. I also took the opportunity to stay an extra day and check out a church the following morning before heading home. The upshot of it all was that I decided that Aberdeen was the university for me.
The next part of the plan was to apply. So, in September 2016, I signed up for UCAS and filled in the application - except the personal statement (because who can really be bothered with that!) My understanding was that the whole thing needed to be finished and submitted by the end of January - spoiler alert: I was wrong. Having filled in most of the information I basically put the rest off until closer to the time. I wasn’t keen on talking to my boss, because I knew that it would be a really difficult conversation, so I was happy to wait until closer to the time. The August to December term had been really difficult at work, and so I wasn’t keen on adding to the bad news. I thought I would just wait until January 2017, when I would need tell her, before breaking the bad news - after all, bad news can wait huh?
So, when the new year rolled round, I was planning on telling my boss - and asking her for a reference - in plenty of time before the end of the month. I hadn’t realised two things. Firstly, the application was due in by the 15th of January, and secondly, my reference needed to be included with my application. So, on Wednesday the 11th of January 2017, I met with my boss to tell her I’d decided to leave. She was very supportive and incredibly encouraging. I asked her if she could complete a reference for me, and assured her that it wasn’t due until the end of January. The following morning, I got an email from UCAS ‘reminding’ me that my application was due by 6pm on the 15th and that my reference needed to be included with it. This was not good news! So I phoned my boss and very apologetically begged her to complete the reference for me. Again, she agreed, saying that it was no problem and that she’s done it before herself! Thanks to my boss, my own blind panic, and God opening the door for me, I got my application in on time.
The next part of the process was working out where I would live and how on earth I would afford to live whilst studying. At Easter time in 2017, I was still waiting on replies from some universities when I got a letter from Aberdeen… They had been the first university to reply to my application, and the first university to accept me as a student. Anyway, the university were writing to me to offer me some perks to attract me to study with them. The first perk was that they were offering me a year of free accommodation with them! I couldn’t believe it! What an incredible and timely answer to prayer! All of a sudden, everything just seemed to fall into place. I was able to rent out my flat - such was my plan for paying for food throughout the year. Rent at uni was taken care of. God had clearly opened the doors. And so the door was open for the move to Aberdeen to begin the Aberdream.
Having thought about it, I remembered something else. Over the years, I have taken advice from several people about where I should go to study. One of those people was my brother Andrew - and I have always greatly valued his advice. I remember sitting down for coffee with him in 2014, and clearly remember him suggesting to me that I go to study in Aberdeen. Who knew?
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