My Journey

A few notes: for the most part, I will be writing British English, as I have studied, lived, and worked in the UK for years and that’s my new normal. The one exception will be the oxford comma, which is such a wonderful clarifying thing when making a list and ironically, not used often in the UK. This is my hill to die on. The oxford comma rules.
Secondly, I want to acknowledge that I am writing this from the privileged perspective of a white, American woman. Immigrating to the UK was a brutal, lengthy process, but being a native English speaker with white skin meant I was not met with the racism and xenophobia that some of my fellow immigrants experienced. It’s not right and needs to be called out.
It’s also one of the reasons I identify as an immigrant rather than an expat – it generally seems only wealthy white people ‘get to be’ expats, and I don’t personally want to use a term that feels so exclusionary. The struggle and cost of immigrating, the spirit, hard work, and contributions of immigrants that has made the UK what it is today – I’m proud to be a part of that, in my own small way. Immigrants are my people.
Right, let’s crack on with the story, yeah?
It’s August 2017, I’ve started my fifth year of teaching, and I come to three conclusions: I’m feeling burnt out from teaching, I want a master’s degree, and I want to travel. I quickly realised one idea might cover it all: quit my job and get a master’s degree abroad. Ahh, the enthusiasm and confident ignorance of youth. I was going to need it!
First step – got a new passport. Second step – started looking at graduate programmes overseas.
So how did I end up choosing Scotland?
Well, I knew if I was going to be in a graduate programme, I didn’t also want to be learning a new language at the same time, so I focused my search on English speaking countries. I’d been to England before, so that held less interest.
I looked at university programmes in Ireland and Scotland before finding a course that looked both interesting and vague enough that I could potentially use the degree in more than one career: Educational Studies at The University of Glasgow. I was already a teacher, so a degree that built new skills but in a familiar field seemed perfect.
Plus, look at this photo. I think the first time I saw a photo of these arched cloisters at The University of Glasgow, my fate was sealed. They are just as magical in person, fyi.
Was it possible that a certain book I read years ago called Outlander was on my mind when I chose Scotland? I can neither confirm nor deny this. 🫠 I certainly had built a romantic notion of Scotland in my mind. Which, to be fair, has mostly held up, even after all these years.
Benefit of master’s programmes in the UK? They tend to be only one year long. Major downside? International tuition. But I figured tuition in the States for a two-year (or longer) programme might be about the same as one year tuition in the UK – plus I’d get to travel. Basically, I was doing all sorts of mental gymnastics to justify the cost of this plan.
Ultimately, I was 27, my dad had just passed away at Christmas, I was making very little money as a teacher in Colorado and wanted an adventure to give me a new purpose. So, I went for it! Applied to The University of Glasgow, got accepted, and informed my boss I’d finish the year of teaching, then resign.
I have since learned there is a term for this: pulling a geographic. Changing one’s physical environment in the hopes that one’s problems will magically go away in the new place. Huh.
I mean, it didn’t NOT work? But life is gonna life, and as they say: wherever you go, there you are. This would be a concept I understood all too well within the next few years. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Back to the beginning of the adventure. 😊
Financially, it was a big stretch (massive understatement). Not only would there be international tuition to pay (clocking in at a whopping £17,900/$22,600 for the year), but because I had no financial records in the UK, I’d have to pay a full year’s rent up front.
You heard me.
My fantastic American credit score meant next to nothing in the UK – which, fair enough. If you haven’t heard about the Americentrism mindset, look it up. America is actually not considered the centre of the universe in all countries – crazy, right? 😉
A full year’s rent would set me back £6,342 ($8,900). If I’d known someone in the UK to act as guarantor (to pay my rent in the event I didn’t), I could have paid monthly. But I didn’t know anyone. I could’ve also paid for a guarantor service, then paid the year’s rent in three instalments – but this also seemed complicated and costly.
It was February 2018, and I juuuust had the money in savings, so I paid for the full year. It would include all bills and internet as well, which would make the year much simpler. I’d be living in a flat with 5 other flatmates – all with our own tiny bedrooms and tinier en-suite bathrooms. The flat was near the university campus, in the trendy Finnieston neighbourhood of the West End in Glasgow.
The ground floor was a Tesco (grocery shop) and I will always fondly remember the convenience of having a shop attached to your building. God, I miss that.
To make it work, I withdrew from my teaching pension roughly 40 years early (taking a big percentage hit), but without those funds, I wouldn’t have had much of a chance. I also had to take out even more student loans. Student loans part 2, what fun! Lastly, a bit of insurance money had been sent to me after my dad died. Not happy money, but I was determined to make it mean something.
May 2018 – end of my fifth year of teaching. Tearful goodbyes to students and staff, to all the amazing friends I’d made out west. My brother flew in, helped me pack whatever stuff fit into my Subaru and we headed to Red Rocks Amphitheatre (incredible) for a concert. We left the concert around midnight and started the long 21 hour drive back to Michigan.
I lived with my mom for two months that summer, working a part time job at the local college to save money for a new laptop. The university had sent me my CAS document (Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies) which you must have to apply for a student visa. I applied for my Tier 4 (General) Student Visa that June. It cost $487 at that time.
Part of the application is proving you meet the ‘maintenance’ requirements – essentially that you have enough money to live in the UK for the length of your programme. At the time, I had to show I had £9,135 (roughly $11,500) in my account. This was separate from paying a years’ rent up front (£6,342/$8,900) and separate from tuition fees (£17,900/$22,600). Woof.
I had to book a biometrics appointment a week later where my fingerprints and photo were taken, and my supporting documents looked over.
By July, it was done! I had my Student Visa, rent/bills were paid for the year, tuition paid, flights booked. My lovely mother was going to come with me for the first week so we could explore Edinburgh and Glasgow together. A week before we left, I went to my ten-year high school reunion feeling on top of the world.
It had been so hard to be happy since my dad died, and this upcoming adventure was a light at the end of the tunnel to me. One year in Scotland, then back to Michigan to return to teaching and live closer to family – that was the plan.
When we make plans, God laughs, right? I had no idea what was in store for me…
I flew to Scotland on the 25th of August 2018 with my lovely, hilarious mother in tow. We arrived in Edinburgh, took a bus into town and were immediately stunned by the city skyline. Vast swaths of history represented in the different architecture, layered in such a way that was almost fantastical. It was a beautiful, sunny day and life felt magical.
We were staying in an Airbnb in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh. This was long before I knew the negative effects Airbnbs were having on the city – contributing in a major way to the housing crisis that currently affects Edinburgh. If you are reading this now, please book hotels/hostels rather than Airbnbs!
It was a nice wee flat, near to Holyrood Park and close to a school that years later, I would end up teaching in(!!). I love when life has those little callbacks.
We wandered to Holyrood Park in the evening and walked around St Margaret’s Loch at the base of Arthur’s Seat. In the morning, I woke up early and hiked up to the ruins we’d spotted the day before: St Anthony’s Chapel. Looking out across the city, I felt like I had made the best decision of my life. I was taking a risk, I was on an adventure, and it was fate or God that brought me here. In truth, it was the beginning of one of the best years of my life.
I have to remember that – remember that feeling of ease, of rightness. Many of the years that followed had a lot of darkness and uncertainty. As high as the current high was, there would indeed be some low lows that followed.
But for the moment, it was bliss.
We spent three days in Edinburgh wondering why on Earth the city was SO busy – and thanking my lucky stars that I’d be living in Glasgow, instead. Oh, ignorant me. I had not heard of the very famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe – the world’s largest performing arts festival that takes place in Edinburgh every August. It’s a month of comedy, art, theatre, poetry, circus acts, magic shows – anything you can think of. Ranging from the terrible to the transformative – it is truly an incredible time. But also a very busy time. The Festival attracts over 4 MILLION people to Edinburgh in the month of August alone – no wonder I was feeling a bit claustrophobic.
I would later live in Edinburgh for 5 years and would love going to shows in August while also trying not to get annoyed at the tourists.
But back to 2018 – off to Glasgow we went and spent a few days enjoying the sights in the West End. My sweet mother helped me move into my student flat in the Finnieston neighbourhood and then it was tearful goodbyes at the airport.
One of the requirements of being an international student was to attend in-person check in appointments twice a year, just to make sure you were actually in the country and doing what you were supposed to be doing. I attended this, spent lots of time getting to know my 5 flatmates, and got ready to start a graduate programme.
Having 5 flatmates was actually amazing. This was in large part because we all had our own bedrooms and bathrooms (life-saver). But we met up in the kitchen/living space many times during the year we lived together. We had two people from America (including myself), one person from Germany, one person from China, one person from Greece, and one person from England. It was an fantastic mix of personalities and cultures. We played games together, watched horror shows, celebrated each other’s holidays and religious events – it was one of the best parts of my year in Glasgow.
The burnout feeling from having taught for five years quickly became a distant memory. Grad school was tough. It was a very research heavy programme and those were skills I didn’t particularly enjoy developing. Some of the classes were very interesting, some I endured. But not having to teach every day was such a visceral relief. I loved being a teacher, but it certainly takes a toll on you, physically and mentally. I was grateful to have a year as a student again.
I met loads of people, I joined the Krav Maga society and the Whisky society, and just tried to take advantage of every opportunity I could.
It was after a Whisky society meeting that one of my flatmates (and a group of other new friends), decided to go for even more drinks at Òran Mór – an amazing church turned pub in the West End. Once there, a random couple sat down next to me, clocked my accent and started up a conversation. They heard I was interested in whisky and suddenly I had several drams in front of me to try. It was a magic experience, meeting strangers and just connecting immediately. Little did I know, they would change the course of my life.
Before we left that evening, we exchanged numbers. A few weeks later, I was invited to some birthday drinks, and that was the first time I met my future partner. I became a regularly fixture in their friend group almost immediately, and a month later, I was in the happiest relationship of my life.
By December, he had invited me to spend Christmas with his family in Edinburgh. We strolled through the Christmas Market, sipping on mulled wine, dreaming of the future. I met a close friend of his in a cigar bothy on Christmas Eve. We watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy with his mother. I was falling hard.
This was, of course, amazing! I had been very happily single for a number of years before moving to Scotland, but he was exactly the right match for me.
This also led to the scary question – how can we make this work after my programme ends?
Well, that was a problem for 2019 Natalie. And it was a big one.