Introducing the ‘Whoze-its and Whatz-its galore.’
Who are you?
I suppose most introductions should start with this question: who are you? What is your reason for being?
For starters, my name’s Kayley, Kay for short, and I’m a recently (does late April still count as recent?) turned nineteen-year-old. I live in a little place in Europe where the sun is practically always shining, and the lovely ocean’s call surrounds us.
I still live with my parents, older brother and four lovely dogs (three of which are rescues). I’m currently enrolled as a second-year at CCCU, studying Creative and Professional writing. That’s kind of how I found out about Medium, and it’s been really interesting to use so far.
You would think that life on this little rock gets a little bit boring, especially if you think about all the things you could do in big cities like New York or Melbourne, but I promise you it isn’t at all boring. Yeah, we can’t visit a karaoke bar, like the ‘Pacific Room Club and Karaoke’ in Seoul or go to a Waterstones in London, but there is still plenty to do. With beautiful parks and nature reserves, not to mention all of our beaches, there’s always something outdoors-ey to do. Our scenery takes my breath away every single day, and with everything within walking distance, what’s not to love about the place I call home? Below I’ve added a photo I took by Rosia Bay, last November, so you can see for yourself what sort of views I’m talking about.
Why did I choose to study Creative Writing at CCCU?
I had never considered going abroad to study a degree, the idea of leaving my family behind and being at a distance from them was too scary of a thought. So, why did I choose to get a degree in the end…and why was it abroad?
My journey as a Canterbury Christ Church, Creative Writing student (or CCCCWS for short) is a long one. For starters, I had applied to CCCU on a whim, a month or two after my friends, who had always known they would study abroad. I had been with them when they looked into universities, and CCCU had caught my eye, it was one of two universities I ended up applying to.
The idea of going abroad was terrifying to me, but I needed a degree in something if I wanted to pursue my dream job (which I’ll go into more depth about shortly), and whilst I didn’t think I had the skillset to pursue something very academic like Maths or Science, I thought I could maybe get away with pursuing counselling, as it was something I was interested in.
So, I applied for a bachelor’s degree in counselling and mentoring at CCCU, and to my surprise, I got in. I chose something I had little to no knowledge of, not the smartest move from someone who dreaded even the thought of being apart from everything I knew and loved. I felt that it was something I could do though, growing up I had gotten used to being other people’s support system. I was the counsellor of some of my closest friends, and even adults had opened up to me with secrets they wouldn’t normally share. It just seemed natural for me to choose counselling, I wanted to help people and I felt I was, as someone who has gone through their own trauma’s and healed, a person who could help others.
COVID-19 had struck though, and I spent a lot of months stuck inside my bedroom, trying to deal with all of the horrible news that seemed to never end. In those months I did nothing but writing to escape from the horrors of what was happening in the world. I had begun to realise then, that I had been using writing as a lifeline, and it had felt more and more like home as the days passed.
The more I started to think of creative writing as my safe space, the more overwhelming it was to think about doing a bachelor’s on a course I knew little to nothing about. I hadn’t been trained or even chosen psychology as an A-Level, I had blindly walked into something I, at the time, thought was easy enough. I thought I could help people heal.
It took a lot of soul-searching for me, but I had decided to go with my heart and I swapped to Creative and Professional Writing, a course which, as present Kay who is writing this in her second year, has made me extremely happy. I mean, I get to do what I love and somehow I get a qualification out of it, how sick is that?
What was the dream job I mentioned above?
And why do I need a degree to do it?
Since I was a little girl, I could never decide between three careers: midwifery, (which I later learned was not the path for me), teaching or working as a veterinarian nurse.
Considering the idea of someone’s life being left in my hands terrifies me, I don’t think I’d make a good midwife. Not to mention I sympathise too easily and I’d grow too attached to the babies, it’s just easier if I crossed that one off of the list. I do, however, applaud anyone that works in health care. As someone whose mum and brother both work in healthcare, I have seen first-hand what a bad day means and it takes a lot of strength to keep going at it.
Next would be a veterinarian nurse, but similar to midwifery, that would be too chaotic for me. It’s probably because I’ve grown up always having animals around me, but my love for animals is sometimes bigger than my love for humans. I can’t watch an animal die in a movie, I cry when the pet’s of my sims characters die and overall I get too attached too quickly. If I worked in that profession, it would do more harm than good to my mental health.
All that’s left is teaching, which you may have already guessed, but, it’s my dream job. I had always instinctively known I wanted to teach, the idea of teaching is incredible to me. I mean, a person decides to study for a certain amount of years and suddenly they’re teaching and shaping the next generation. I always told myself if I ever became a teacher I’d teach my students how ‘love is love’, and I would try to shape the students to become kind-hearted individuals.
When I finish my degree, I want to use it to specialize in English and become a teacher at my old first school, Notre Dame, as I have nothing but fond memories of that place. I’d like to help give children an outlet for their confusing or overwhelming emotions, using whatever method they feel the most comfortable with. Whether it’s writing like me, or drawing, building something, etc. I just want to give them the chance of having a healthy way to deal with their emotions as it’s extremely important.
Until we meet again
There you have it, reader, you’ve gotten to know me a bit better, although why you would want to? Who knows. Maybe this taught you something, or there is a lesson to be learned like not just choosing a degree last minute and on a whim. Whatever the case may be, I hope you’ve felt welcome, because truly, the only thing I want out of this is to create some sort of safe space.
Honestly, I thought I would find this type of blog hard to write, I mean I don’t like writing about myself at all. Once I pushed past the initial dread though, it was smooth sailing from there. I found it easier the more I wrote and I even added extra little details because I found myself enjoying it. I guess that goes to show, you should try something even if you think you won’t like it because you might just surprise yourself.
