As someone who never struggled that much at school, except for Maths (which I sucked at, big style), I always intended, and expected, to go to University. And I did. It just took me a lot longer than I thought it would to get there… about another thirty years!
After your O Levels, in early 1980’s Scotland you went on to do your Highers, the equivalent of A Levels in England. You did them in your Fifth Year at school, and you needed as many A and B grades as possible to outdo the competition and have a shot at being offered a place at University.
My Fifth Year, 1982 to 1983, was disrupted by the family moving around so much that I was at three different schools – Prestwick Academy, Inverness Royal Academy and Greenfaulds High School in Cumbernauld – in the space of just six months.
Three different schools, three different sets of teachers and three different sets of classmates, in the most important six months of my educational life, with all the academic and personal disruption that entails, meant that when I had the opportunity to join Cumbernauld Youth Theatre instead of trying to salvage my education, I chose the theatre.
So 1984 wasn’t, as I’d thought it would be, the year I went to Uni. Instead, I was busy chasing my dream of being an actor. I wouldn’t get to University until 2012, which, if nothing else, just goes to show that it’s never too late!
Hint: Never give up on your dream just because it doesn’t happen when you want it to.
So, having finally got there, albeit a lot later in life than I thought I would, what did I learn?
Having just spent the previous two years at College, and dealing with the challenge of having to do essays again for the first time in nearly thirty years, the first thing you learn is that the leap from College to University is a huge one. Nothing at College really prepares you for the step-change you experience at Uni when it comes to upping your essay-writing game.
Hint: Get ahead of the curve. The earlier you start work on your submissions, the easier they will be.
And if the change from College to Uni is a big one, it’s nothing compared to going from Undergraduate to Postgraduate!
Make the most of your time at Uni, you’ll never experience anything like it ever again. Take every opportunity that comes your way to express yourself. It’s just as much about discovering who you are as a person as it is about learning the subject you’re studying.
Hint: You never know who among your classmates could be the key to your future employment or happiness. Or maybe even both!
When I went to Uni, I had a view of myself that came under some intense scrutiny. I was forced to re-evaluate not only who I thought I was but who I thought I could be and why was I the way I was?
When I started back at Full Time Education, my view of myself was that I was an Actor. That was it. Acting & performing was something I had a natural talent for and it was all I really wanted to do. And then…
As part of my Undergrad course at UWS, there were two modules that stimulated a change of thought. The first was Team Writing For Television, the other was The One Act Play.
The first taught me that I don’t really work that well, creatively, as part of a team. I much prefer to fly solo. The second taught me that writing was something that I had more talent for than I thought, resulting in me being awarded Best One Act Play 2014 for The Fandom Menace.
The main thing I learned from both was that I had to revise my opinion of myself. I wasn’t just an Actor, I was An Actor Who Could Write. I put both of those skills to use when I created my Dr Who fan film, Project: Fifty. But that process of self evaluation and re-evaluation wasn’t over. It had only just begun…
Hint: Sometimes in life, it’s only by being on the “wrong” path that you can get on the right path.
After finishing my Undergrad at UWS, it was on to my Postgrad. My plan was to go to Glasgow Caledonian University and get on their MA in TV Fiction course, since what I really wanted to do was screen writing. But I didn’t get in…
As ever with any big disappointment, there are only two possible responses you can have when something like this happens.
The first is that you torture yourself that you blew your one big opportunity, which isn’t exactly a sound mental health strategy. The other, correct, response is to tell yourself that it wasn’t the right place for you. It wasn’t that you weren’t good enough, or that you were good enough, just that on the day everyone else was better. No, the only way to deal with disappointment is to tell yourself it wasn’t the right thing for you.
It’s a bit like relationships. Even if you find yourself being really attracted to her, you just know in your heart that as people the two of you just aren’t compatible.
Hint: It doesn’t matter how much you want something or how good it looks. If it’s wrong for you, it’s wrong for you. You don’t have to push at an open door…
So instead of going where I wanted to go, I ended up going where they wanted me. Which was the University of Glasgow, to do Playwrighting & Dramaturgy. The fact that I’d been awarded Best One Act Play at UWS for The Fandom Menace probably helped swing it…
UoG was a much tougher study regime than UWS and I didn’t enjoy my time at the former nearly as much as the latter. But I came out the other side with another play, Mrs Mackintosh, that was shortlisted for The David MacLennan Award, so it wasn’t all bad. Even if I did graduate with a Merit instead of a Distinction…
When I started my Postgrad, my opinion of myself was that I was an Actor Who Could Write. As a result of being at UoG I had to revise it once again. I was now A Writer Who Could Act, and that’s a very different thing…
With a two-hour semi-professional fan film to my name, did that lead to a career in TV Writing? No. It didn’t.
With two well-regarded, though unproduced, plays to my name, did that lead to a career as a Playwright? No. It didn’t.
What they did lead to was the realisation that what I needed to do with the time I had left to me was go through the open door up ahead marked Self Publishing…
Hint: If it’s the wrong thing for you, whatever you get out of it won’t be worth what you put into it.
BRYANMACKBOOKS.COM 