Until, in the May just before exams started for the penultimate year of the course, I received some seriously unwanted news!
Dear Louise, it said.
We regret to inform you that due to ongoing lack of government investment we have had to take the difficult decision to withdraw funding for the distance-learning element of the Equine Science program…
I literally felt that the rug had just been pulled from under my feet and I had landed right on my ass with a thud! I had put my heart and soul into my studies and had hoped to graduate with a first. What was I going to do? All the students sitting on a 2.4 or higher would be eligible to join the full-time course in Limerick, but that was a solid four hour drive away, and that would mean us having to move, which was definitely not an option. I was devastated - all that time and effort spent and for what? The most frustrating and upsetting thing was all the time I missed out on with the children because I was studying or doing projects; I had even missed Eliza’s 1st birthday because I had a practical exam. It really did hit me hard - it was all for nothing, I said to myself, and for a second time in my life my dream of veterinary yanked out of reach once again.
The next few weeks where spent writing letters to anyone and everyone that I thought had some sort of influence on decision making within the University, but that proved futile. I can’t quite remember if I cried much about it, but if I did it was most probably the feeling of helplessness that upset me the most. But, little did I know, this would be one of the most valuable life lessons I have learned in my thirty years on this earth. I’m sure you have heard it said - “if something is for you it will not go past you” – well, up until this point, I had always believed this so-called pearl of wisdom.
Now, I don’t think anything could be further than the truth! What I learned next was that, if you want something, like, really want something in life, you have to go and get it. You have to chase it – and, just at that point when you feel like giving up, quit feeling sorry for yourself and go and chase it some more, because for the most of us nothing ever gets handed to you on a plate and if it did I think it would lose its value.
So, eventually, I managed to dust myself off and get back on the horse (so to speak!).
I finished my last set of exams at the University of Limerick, managed to pass with distinction, thanked the lecturers very much then ironically learned my next valuable life lesson - “sometimes, to get where you want to go, you have to turn around, go back to where you started and try again.”
So it was on to the next chapter in the Life And Times of Lou, and this part was called doing my A-Levels (…again). This was the only option that would allow me to stand a chance of getting to vet school.
“You are absolutely mad, Louise!”
This was basically the gist of how the conversation went with my friends. My two best friends, Christine and Danielle (and pretty much everyone else that I talked to about it) could only see the problems. How are you going to manage that, are you going to enrol at a college, and where are you going to find the time and money?
“It’s fine,” I said. “It will only take a year, and I have bought some Chemistry, Biology and Physics books from Amazon, so I will just go through them, do the exams and I can apply to vet school this year.”
“You have completely lost the plot, woman!” said Christine
“It will be fine - there is an independent college in England where I can sit the practicals - if a bunch of 18 year olds can do it, it can’t be that bad!” I replied cheerily.
Oh, how wrong I was!
