God's work

I'm so thankful that God has such a marvellous way of working everything out, especially when it seems like there is no way that it could possibly work out.

I got into Cardiff! i can't remember if i blogged before on the millions of reasons why i almost certainly wouldnt get offered a place but there were many, mainly because i fluffed up the interview and then it just seemed like everything was going against me and it was becoming less and less likely - for example they didnt recieve the reference that Naomi sent off for me and so a replacement one wasnt emailed back to the uni until 11.45pm on Monday night (the day of the deadline). I'd pretty much given up hope that they would even consider my application anymore and was wondering what on earth i'd do now. This may all seem a little dramatic if you consider that i applied to four other universities too but it wasn't until i sent off the applications that i actually crunched the numbers on how much all of this would cost and realised that i really couldnt afford to go to a university in England, there are differences with how the funding is set up and the basics of it are that to do a nursing degree in Wales you get a bursary to live off of that isnt calculated on how much you or your parents earn, if you do a nursing degree in England it is calculated on how much you earn to determine how much you would need to be able to survive. The diplomas in England are calculated in the same way as the welsh degree programmes but since the government are now saying in five years time all nurses will need to have the degree, it seems pointless entering the diploma programme just to be set back in years to come. Originally i assumed this small difference wouldnt make any difference to me, im 24 and at 25 you are counted as a mature student so finances would be calculated from my earnings anyway but of course it is calculated from the age you are when you start the course ... what is more ridiculous is a 'means tested' bursary would be calculated on my mums earnings, even though i have lived by my own means for the past four years, because three of these were at university apparently that doesnt count, you have to have lived for 36 months on your own means, apparently whilst at university i was living off of the government. This is a really ridiculous system because my mum hasnt been able to help support me for like five years, and even if she had i wouldnt have let her give me any money! I paid my own tuition fees and my own rent and used my scholarship money to support myself but the government doesnt take this into consideration, so 'means-tested' means calculating my mothers means from last year, which were higher than usual because she started working full time, and she was getting my dads pension to support Eliot, so basically i'd be classed as a middle range earning student that means the bursary wouldnt be enough to live off of because the government would expect my mum to help with things like rent.

Anyway long rant short this meant that if i went to one of the three English universities i had applied for i would have been too poor to afford food. This is why there was such a high volume of applications to welsh universities for the course and how there ended up being a short list of 900 people at the interview. Plus the fact that Cardiff is one of the best universities in the UK of course.

And of course the most wonderful thing about going there being that i'll be so close to the Elliotts, totally not the reason i chose the uni but a fantastic added bonus. God must have big plans for all of this if He is bringing this all together so nicely, i just can't imagine what they are.

And the other added bonus is that now i can go to Barry and Heathers wedding in September in Cyprus, i'd originally told my mum that i wouldnt be able to go because the uni start dates for english unis are too early but Cardiff starts a week after the wedding, i really dont know why i worry so much that things wont work out when its obvious that God has it all under control.

Now i guess the only things that need to get sorted are finding a car that is within my means (i.e. almost free) so i can drive to placements and wont have to live in the city centre and finding a place to live that isnt horrendously expensive and ideally not in the dorms (because coming home after a 24 hour shift to a student flat full of drunk flat mates who only have an hour of classes at 4pm the next day doesnt seem ideal) but how that is going to be possible when i dont know of any other students in Cardiff and cant afford to rent a place by myself is going to interesting to see how it all works out, but of course i know it will somehow.

Awesomeness!!

Money ....

Money is a worry, of course it is, i earn £74 a week and that has to last me, it would be shocking if it wasnt a worry i guess. I would very much like to be out of debt though, there are things i would really like to start saving for and putting money into but its just not really happening at the moment, as soon as i think im about sorted with it and know how its going and where its heading something comes up that puts me a million steps back. Its not depressing, its just something i need to be wary of.