Just your average girl.

At 23, I was just your average girl – still fresh into her twenties, desperately trying to figure out who or what she wanted to be, and, most importantly, spending as much time as possible with the people she loved.

Born and bred in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, I moved to Scotland in September 2012 to study English and Journalism at the University of Stirling. A choice that may or may not have been influenced – at least in part – by my love for a boy.

Over four years, I embraced student life. Or at least, my own version of it.

If I had to go out, I’d take a pub over a club any day. I spent afternoons in coffee shops, nursing endless cups of tea as I worked on essays and seminar tasks. And, like many students, I had a part-time job. Mine was in Poundstretchers. The less said about that, the better.

All in all, I was happy during my time in Stirling. I had found a rhythm that suited me well.

Back in school, I had always struggled. I achieved borderline-average grades and constantly battled the anxiety of looming exams and the pressure of growing workloads during my GCSE and A-level years. In fact, in my final year, I barely scraped the grades to get into university – but, thankfully, luck (or maybe a guardian angel) was on my side, and I got an offer from my first choice.

But once I arrived and settled into university life, something just clicked.

It was as if the weight of expectation had lifted, and I could finally breathe. 

The pace was completely different from what I’d experienced at school, and for the first time, I felt more in control – more like myself. The only real struggle was how much I missed home.

Still, despite the pull of Northern Ireland, in the summer of 2016 – after my graduation – I managed to persuade my boyfriend Ben (now my husband) to finally move his 24-year-old arse out of his parents’ house and in with me. And so began a new chapter for us, in a quirky little one-bedroom flat in Glasgow’s Southside.

The first few months in Glasgow were exactly what you'd expect for a new graduate – a constant battle to find a job. 

I have to say, the optimism certainly starts high (usually in the months before graduation), but before you know it, days, weeks and eventually months pass by, and you start applying for anything going, and that optimism you once felt, quickly turns to desperation.

However, for me, somewhere in the middle of all that job hunting, I convinced myself that I could maybe make it as a secondary school English teacher. But, to cut a long story short, I was accepted onto the PGDE course at the University of Strathclyde in August 2016, and by March 2017, I’d spent enough time in the classroom to know, without a doubt, that I was not cut out to handle the youth of today.

So the job hunt resumed.

But, despite feeling completely lost once again, quickly running out of money, and praying to win the lottery each week (despite never actually playing), there was, in the midst of it all, one glimmering moment.

I became a fiancée.