That’s really hard to say, Charlie, but I think it possibly made me a more critical writer. While the linguistics degree I did was technically a BA, the discipline is much more of a science, so I got used to writing in such a way that didn’t allow for much speculation without evidence.

Yes!! Not even, I know what teaching in Taiwan is like as well as trying to get some writing done. It eats away at your time and energy for sure. Looking forward to reading your article :)

That’s funny! I got rejected by Oxford and Durham, so ended up at Exeter. I liked it well enough, a good mix of people and to be honest the English course was so much better than at the other two. I got to study films pretty much all the time and still call my degree English Lit. ha.

Thank you. No! Not paid for at all. It’s one of the free WordPress themes (I think it’s called Spacious) and I just fiddled around with it a lot. I’m hopeless at CSS and coding, so it’s only what I could figure out. It takes a lot of time to keep up with anything. I’m also not really sure if I’d be better of with a paid theme or not: I’ve seen other bloggers using paid themes but a lot of them I don’t like. I mean, there are small things about the free version of this that annoy me, like not being able to have menus that drop down into sub-categories, but equally I try not to get over concerned with pernickety blogging things.

Paths crossing would be awesome! I’m sure it will happen at some point, as you say. Sorry it took me a week to reply to all your messages, this week back at school has been non stop and I haven’t really got online at all. In the spirit of being proactive about my writing I’m doing the travel writing course at Matador U, and should have an article published soon (which I will plaster news about all over facebook, because it’s my first one). Only problem is it’s eating up ALL my free time.

Just to link the coincidences, I wanted to go to Exeter, but when three prospectuses didn’t arrived I sent for a Glasgow one and that’s where I went… Haha.

Incidentally, I love the design of this blog. Is it a fancy paid for one? I still don’t completely understand how mine works. I don’t know what happened but I fell out of the loop on technology at some stage and now don’t ever understand how to do things.

Thanks, mum. Those people really have helped me to grow, and not only as a writer.

£1200 a year is a much nicer sum than the £3500 I paid, but then again looking at the £9000 fees the UK currently has I can’t complain! I also agree that it’s a mistake and isn’t suited to everyone, neither is having such a debt hanging over their head after it. Do you think your degree helped with your writing at all? Or do you feel along the same lines as I do?

Hi Amelia! You’re very sweet, thank you so much for reading. I’ve just checked out your blog too, I love it (and it’s name!) :)
Wow, we have a very similar background!! Exactly the same in fact!! So crazy!!

My degree also stopped me writing for a while, I think it’s kind of natural when you read and write so intensely for those three years. really I only started writing again because I moved to Taiwan.

Who are you working for in Taipei? Do you like Taiwan even though the job isn’t ideal? I really hope that you can make that same transition to writing but I also think that ESL teaching, and living in Taiwan for that matter, is an excellent life experience and a big learning curve even if it doesn’t always feel that way when you’re there.

I hope that our paths cross and we can meet one day! I’m sure we’d get on ;D