When I was a kid I wanted to be a fashion designer! I went to an all girls Catholic school and our careers advisor was a nun, (honest) and it was a standing joke that we were expected to become either homemakers, nurses or nuns!

I can still see her face to this day as I took my seat opposite her and announced that I would be applying for a fashion degree so that I could live in Paris and work for Jean Paul Gaultier! Needless to say she wasn’t impressed and handed me a leaflet about a careers day at the local hospital.

As it happened, I did go on and fulfill my dream. Ok so it wasn’t Paris, but I got as far as working as a buyers assistant in London, until I realised it wasn’t as glamorous as I had imagined and finally turned my back on the world of fashion and retrained as a therapist. After eleven years of that I finally settled on making cupcakes for a living!

So, it just goes to show that your life can take various unexpected twists and turns until you find yourself settled in a job that’s right for you.

Which brings me to eldest who next year will take GCSE’s, followed by  A’ levels and ultimately go on to University….to do what? Well I don’t know and neither does he?

My son surprised us all when he won an English scholarship which enabled him to attend a fee paying school. There is an expectation that he and his fellow pupils will go to University and with that in mind we have been looking  at potential careers for him.

We’ve had great fun looking for unusual courses and he found himself quite taken with moving to the States and attending medical assistant school! Then he changed his mind and decided that when my brother emigrates in July, he could stay with him in Australia for and study at the University of Sydney, certainly a cheaper option than UK Universities!

It’s an exciting and nerve wracking time for him, certainly harder than when I was at school. And if he can’t get a job? I wholly recommend becoming an entrepreneur like his old mum!