It’s not even nine o’clock on Saturday morning and already I’m on my way to the hebridean islands. First, this train drops me off at Glasgow Central station, after which I must change to Queen Street station to take the 12:21 train to Oban. Two nights in Oban, then at 8:00 Monday morning the Ferry (the Ferry which I must be on) departs for Coll.
This is where the selection course takes place, and my journey starts.
Well, the journey’s already started hasn’t it? After all, I did spend nigh on five hours driving to Northwich yesterday (yes, I did actually drive there myself, I only passed my test the other Wednesday – mum was with me though; I’d never driver on the motorway before), and I will spend another 10 hours or more travelling there, but it’s the figurative journey I’m talking about. You know the one.
To put it more clearly, the gap year I hope to go on volunteering to teach somewhere abroad with the charity Project Trust. Project Trust is a charity that has been sending school leavers (17-19 year olds) abroad to volunteer for 12 months for over forty years, so they know what they’re doing. It’s an opportunity to share your skills with others, challenge yourself and encourage worldwide understanding.
But before I can start all that understanding and sharing and stuff, there’s the small matter of raising £5600 and even before that, the first challenge starts in two days time, when I’m must prove my worth on selection in order to even be chosen (or ‘selected’) to go on one of these trips. Though it’s not all hard work on selection; I’ve heard that we learn how to dance a ‘ceilidh’ for the party on the last night, and staying with host families overnight sounds fun, I get the feeling that it’s not a jolly, there are things to be done and discussed in serious terms – because after all it is not something to be taken lightly at all.
But one of the main reasons that I want to go is that it won’t be easy, because my aim in life is to challenge myself and do something amazing, that I may understand the things and the people that make up the world. But I must reconcile my desire to see everything in the world with this particular opportunity, where I would be in one place completely different to my own home for a whole year. It will require boundless energy, enthusiasm, creativity, willingness to learn, determination, self motivation and who knows what else! I’ll find out for myself, providing I do get selected.
