GUESS WHAT I DID WHEN I WAS 43....?

To set the scene you must realise that I have had a lot of kids and had been a stay-at-home Mum for ever; I was perfectly happy with my home and kids [I had an Aga for goodness sakes…]. I dabbled in writing for magazines, I did an Open University course, I tidied up a bit and did baking etc. etc.

So, the point is: I had no career, no ‘job’, no training.

Then, after I had recovered from an emergency hysterectomy when I lost my last child in utero [thanks to placenta accreta – google it], I looked out of the kitchen window, my hands in the washing up bowl and thought, ‘What do I do now?’

Some people may think that I had plenty to do, but shucks, I was on a roll – my youngest was nearly ready to go to playgroup and with no little baby on the way what would I spend my days doing? I need to train at something I thought, so that when they are all at school I can get a job.

And then, all those hours reading medical textbooks merged with a magazine article I had been reading about a woman who was chronically ill for many years, and had ended up on steroids because the doctors couldn’t do anything for her. So she went to a medical herbalist and within six months she had been weaned off the steroids and was perfectly fine. So impressed was she with the treatment that she contacted The National Institute of Medical Herbalists and trained as a medical herbalist herself.

This provoked two three four questions in me.                                                            

1.       Herbs could form a system of medicine that could treat ill people? [As opposed to just chamomile tea to help you sleep and other ‘old wives tales’]

2.       There were places where you could train to do this?

3.       Where?

4.       How?

To cut a long story short, I found out and applied. I also found out that to take the degree I would first have to take a Foundation Degree in Chemistry and Biology. But to take the Foundation Degree I would first have to take a GCSE in Chemistry.

So, there I am at 43 going to the same college as one of my sons, to take my Chemistry. We collected ours results together which was fun. I took my Foundation Degree, then my BSc [Hons] in Herbal Medicine.

My Uni in London

BTW, that's a bruise on my chin in the first pic, not 3-day stubble. I tripped and fell trying to catch the bus in London,     and the photo is of me back in my digs that evening, studying like a good girl...

I am grateful that I live in a country where middle-aged women can go to University and take degrees [pity about the cost tho’, but thank you darling…]. And thankful that I can also go back to college again to take a diploma in teaching [thank you darling, again…].

My youngest child is now 17 and if I hadn’t grasped the opportunity to go to University in my 40s I think I might be twiddling my thumbs or doing crosswords. Instead I am seeing patients [www.growingmedicine.co.uk], writing study guides for our Herbal Medicine School [www.schoolofherbalmedicine.co.uk], teaching at the school, leading herb walks, running workshops, collecting wild herbs, growing medicinal herbs, making medicines, giving talks.

You might be surprised what you could do if you had the courage! If there is something you ‘really want to do, but secretly fear you’ll never do it, then…’ read this [I just found a copy]:

Stop Talking Start Doing by Shaa Wasmund. It’ll get you going….

Me with a student picking Galium aperine