STRIVE FOR THAT DREAM!

STRIVE FOR THAT DREAM!

Quote :

It is not often that we hear of kids these days that go to inordinate measures to reach for their dream in normal everyday life. Yes, we have dedicated young people who go through hell to reach their goals in sporting prowess, but generally kids of today either drift into their family profession, drift into university because either their parents did before them or they think society needs them to follow the norm, or more cynically they fall pregnant at an early age so that they don't need to or have to finish their formal education, and can live off benefits. But just now and then someone comes along, and knows what they want but is given a bum hand by their school and have to go to extraordinary lengths to prove and secure their chosen career, and I would like to tell of one such person.

It's a young lady that was given the chance to enjoy some trips on an old classic lifeboat on the Clyde at the age of 13. She in fact enjoyed steering it so much around Cumbrae that one day whilst still on holiday she asked the skipper of a ferry if she could have a look around the wheelhouse of his ship. He gladly allowed her up to the wheel house and a bond was made. Not only with the skipper but with the sea. She even got to steer an ambulance launch whilst on holiday in Guernsey.

She had made up her mind from this point and through the generosity of these people even at that early age, that she wanted a career at sea.

She went along at the age of 14 to a Careers at Sea day at her local Nautical college and was both impressed but at the same time saddened to find that she would need at least a grade B in Mathematics in order to secure a place in such an establishment, but because of the students in her year group in general had been placed in a "foundation maths" group the highest grade she could gain was a "C".

Her parents and her maths teacher both complained to the head of the school and the head of Maths to place her in a higher group, but they refused saying she wasn't capable of getting a higher grade.
And so she struggled on.

On mock interview day for prospective careers she was asked by the head teacher what she wanted to do when she left school, to which she answered that she wanted to join the Merchant Navy The head asked did she want to be a stewardess, but she replied sternly No, I want to be a captain..........and so her head teacher who couldn't comprehend that this bright young lady wanted to do something out of the norm, laughed at her to her face, and continued to laugh and make fun for the next 18 months, until she left with 12 GCSE's all at grade B to A* except for her maths which she attained with ease a "C". Her so called friends also thought her ideas were dreams in the clouds, and sadly she began to doubt her own abilities.

However upon leaving high school she enrolled upon an apprenticeship in customer service, giving her the opportunity to regain some self esteem, lost by the treatment she received at the hands of her friends and the head of school, and soon she realised that she had the ability to raise her game in Maths, and enrolled in a short diploma course on Mechanical Engineering at the local college which would give her a higher grade in maths. She worked hard and even though she had been knocked back by Clyde Marine Training Group twice already, and Northern Marin Training once, because of her lack of self confidence, she gained a distinction in Mathematics within the course of the Mechanical Engineering Diploma, and so now she would be able to apply for a course, but still needed a sponsor to go on the course. She was again knocked back 2 more times by Clyde Marine Training, because of her previous interview failures.

But she was not to be phased, and in June of last year her father got a telephone call from a friend of his, who is LOM at Fleetwood RNLI station telling her to apply for a new none sponsored course in Seamanship and Maritime Operations, which she did, and gained a place on the course.She started in September 2015. She did so well within the first two weeks of starting that she was interviewed with the possibilities of receiving a sponsorship with a company when the course finished. In fact she did so well in all her examinations for the course that she was one of the top students, and had mixed in classes with her counterparts who were all sponsored students.

Two weeks ago she came out of college to tell her father that she had indeed been offered a sponsorship by a company ( not Clyde Marine Training, I might add, much to her relief) and last Thursday she went to Barrow in Furness to sigh her papers.

Tomorrow she enters the college as a fully sponsored Cadet Deck officer on her Foundation Degree course and into her Halls of residence at Fleetwood Nautical College.

She has shown that she does have the grit and determination to strive for what she wants, and if only one young person who reads this has had doubts about their own abilities to succeed, take it from this young lady.......you can if you try hard enough.

And to finish I just have to say that her father and mother could not be more proud of her and her determination and guts to show her so called friends and head teacher from school, how wrong they were.

How do I know all this.............I am her very proud father.

Neil.

Well said that man!!!
Congratulations young lady,I know that at times things have not been easy for you.It is your hard work,and your own faith in your ability that has got you this far in fulfilling your dream.
I wish you all you wish for yourself in the coming years.
Now you can say that record by S club 7 has truly a meaning.   Reach for the Stars!
Well done indeed from Margaret and I 
Mick F

thanks Margaret and Mick.......she is off today to the lakes for a 4 day team building course.........(already did it in September where she did so well that the sponsors were notified )...and I believe she has been made a team leader this time.............that should be fun...........a 12 mile hike up Catbells and around the Dertwentwater tomorrow.

and on Thursday night, to add to the "fun" being the youngest cadet on the course, she has to follow protocol and give  speech at the mess table to the head of the college and all the tutors.............she hates speaking.......will give her confidence though. lol.

neil.

That's great Neil It's a pleasure when you children set goals at an early age I wish her smooth sailing in her studies and her career.

cheers matey.....she is enjoying it immensely.......she had her medical n blood platelet count taken yesterday.....will pm you the reason.......and her first trip to sea is in june/july to Japan.