night, therefore I spent pretty much
every day into my early 20s with my
Grandparents literally enjoying the
best days of my life exactly the way
my Mum and Aunts did. It involved
- taking trips down the coast, eating
fish and chips, visiting every church in
Scotland, playing in the park, taking
long walks, having a paddle in the
freezing cold sea, playing pitch and
putt, drinking endless amounts of tea
from flasks and as my Gran used to
put it “watching the world go by”. It
was brilliant. My Gran and Granpa
were huge influences on me to say
the least. From my Gran, I learned
to smile, to laugh, to joke, to dance,
have become my leadership and they
have become the way I go about life
and business.
I made the traditional decision to leave
school and get a degree in Business
IT & Marketing at the University
of the West of Scotland in Paisley.
Not in any glamourous way; in fact, I
actually failed both English and Maths,
managed to blag an appeal in English,
get a C, then literally turn up at the
university’s door begging them to let
me enrol! Sometimes, you don’t need
the “A” result; you just need a pass to
get to the next place.
I LEARNED TO BE DISCIPLINED, TO KEEP FIT, TO HAVE FUN, TO
WORK AS A TEAM AND TO PUSH MYSELF. I ALSO LEARNED
NEVER TO STEP OUT OF LINE
to talk to anyone, to share stories, to
bake, to not be afraid to ask questions,
to dance, to love but also to be wary as
she used to always tell me the “world’s
crazy” - think that was because of the
regular fights, stabbings, alcohol and
drug abuse she used to read about!
From my Granpa, I learned to be
humble, to be quiet, to read, to walk,
to love, to respect, to treat everyone the
same, to accept people’s strengths and
weaknesses and to have faith. From
my Mum, I learned to be determined,
to work hard, to never give up and to
never say the words “I can’t”. Today
these learnings have become me, they
Alongside this I trained to be a dancing
teacher in ballet, tap and disco. A
hobby that became a qualification - all
because my Mum met a fortune teller
who informed her I would be a great
dancer when I was only 3 years old.
Fortunately, for that fortune teller it
was a good bet! At dancing school I
learned to be disciplined, to keep fit, to
have fun, to work as a team and to push
myself. I also learned never to step out
of line as I was terrified of the principal
who created the best dancing school
in Paisley. I remember one year at the
annual dancing display I forgot a pair
of wings for my ballet performance;
GLOSS JULY 2015 55