This is Holly and I watching the sunset on Coll, excited about Uganda!

The Reality

Throughout the rest of the year, I began to get scared. I was worried my friends would forget me, or that I wouldn't enjoy my project, or that I wouldn't get on with my partners. Eventually I began thinking of reasons why I shouldn't go almost everyday. Of course, this was not a good idea! Why was I so frightened? What was wrong with me? This was going to change my life and hopefully give me some sort of idea of what I might want to do. I was probably more scared than I had ever been in my life. I didn't want to go and I was ashamed of myself. However as training was drawing nearer I was feeling some odd feeling in my tummy, I was excited! After being so afraid for the entire year I was excited to actually meet my new family for the year, my partners. And boy was I lucky! They were fantastic!! Josie, who I had been on selection with and had kept in touch with for the year since selection, and Holly, one of the smartest people I had ever met! They were both fantastic and fun and adventurous, but most of all they were like best friends I hadn't seen in a few months. It was as if I had always known them, the way we would sit and talk while everyone else was busy socialising with one another, the three of us would sit together and get to know things we all liked, disliked, found funny, found annoying and many more things. Oddly our threesome worked, never mind all that "three's a crowd" we were great! 

At the beginning of training we were told to write down our hopes and fears of our year. In all honesty I can't remember my hope, but my fear was simple, "I don't think I can do it." It was the first time I had let anyone know how truly scared I was and I think I brought it home for myself, but I wasn't as scared as I thought. I had told myself so much that I couldn't do it, I forgot why I had decided to do the darn thing! I looked at everyone around the room and I could see that I wasn't the only one petrified, we were all in the same position, what made me so special. I told myself to get a grip because some people dream of these kinds of things but have no possible way of managing to afford it, I was one of the lucky few that was selected and I was going to succeed in my year away. 

Throughout the week I became more and more excited. It was going to be such a fantastic experience! If my friends did forget me it was fine, I would be able to make new ones, and I would always have my family. Training made me realise that what I was about to do was one of the most amazing things in the world and that I should cherish every moment out there. I am glad I didn't quit before training because otherwise I would never have met Holly and Josie, I never would have learnt about all of the diseases I am bound to get and I would never be excited about having to wear ugly shoes!

The beginning to the adventure

It all began with a week on the secluded Isle of Coll. I was shipped off from Oban onto an island in highlands that would leave me with no phone signal and the possibility of heading off to a third world country for a year. Scared? Of course I was!! I was petrified!! Not that I could tell any of my friends or family, they would tell me not to go, but I knew in myself that if I didn't do this I was just going to do what was expected of school leavers and go off to University at the end of my secondary career, something that never appealed to me. Throughout selection I was tested in many ways, such as my ability to climb the highest "mountain" on the island which took 10 minutes so as you can imagine, a pretty small hill! To digging up some seeds and building a shed. I was also given different tasks such as giving a presentation on the isle of Coll and teaching a 10 minute lesson on something of my choice. Over all the week was great fun and by the end of it I was on my knees practically begging to be sent somewhere overseas. So when I received the letter that told me I had been selected to go over to Uganda for a year, I was ecstatic! Mum and Dad were both very apprehensive because of the horrid history of the country, but I was too excited to even care. However, it all became very real when I was handed my first cheque of £100 towards the £5100 I had to raise to get to Uganda. I then held a concert with one of the greatest friends anyone could ask for and raised £400. It was all so real! However the event that made the entire thing too real for me to handle, was my golf day at Blairgowrie Golf Club where I managed to raise over £4000. I was gobsmacked!! With the money I had raised from two events and money that I had been kindly given by sponsors, I had reached my target by mid-October. It was official, I was definitely going to Uganda.