Open Day

Michelle Wards

1999

There is no crueller misfortune in this jet-set world of money, power and glamour than to be born in a dreicher than dreich Scottish village which does not even appear on a map. It is even worse to live in such a place as an awkward bookworm with no interest in standing on street corners drinking and watching boyracers. The pain was lessened only by the prospect of one thing: university. My first glimpse of this beautiful future was Edinburgh University open day, 1999.

I arrived off the train with my mother in tow, clutching my ring binder with a mixture of joy and awe. There was the castle, looming above the city in all its glorious splendour. To my right was Princes Street. A place much maligned by locals but to me it was an absolute treasure trove, a street which had real shops and not just the half-stocked Dorothy Perkins that was the only clothes shop within half an hour of my house. There were people in Princes Street Gardens sitting around relaxing and some of them may quite possibly have been reading actual books. ... (continues)