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Jan. 17th, 2011 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerA decision that wasn't easy to come to.
After reviewing all the factors involved, I've come to the conclusion that I just can't afford to take up the opportunity offered to me at Glasgow, and I don't wish to take up the offer at Abertay. A chance to live in the UK is one of my dearest wishes, but it has to be balanced against other goals, and in this case it has to give way.
I deeply regret that the UK government has changed the rules on work visas the way it has over the last several years, putting what was an HSMP visa, what is now called a Tier 1 visa, out of my reach. I'm also very sorry I didn't take the chance I had to get one before they changed, but that's water under the bridge. A student visa is the only measure open to me, and I'm not prepared to invest more than half my life savings in a course of action that would, at best, give me a few year's grace before being forced to return to the US. And I think that this of all times is one of the worst to be swelling the throng of Britain's job seekers.
To those of you this disappoints, I'm sorry. To those of you who sympathize, I thank you. I don't want to debate or further explain this decision or receive well-meaning advice to change my mind, which is why I'm disabling comments. This isn't the choice that some of my friends would make or would wish me to make, but I can only say that it's my choice; different people makes different decisions. I hope that my choice doesn't cause friends to scoff at me or think less of me, but that's not really up to me; I can only do what I think is right for me.
Goals are important, and this has been a goal that both helped me keep going and caused problems for me over the last 5-6 years. I have some ideas about what goals might replace it, but for now I want to have a little time in my life where I can just take down the mainsail, put out a sea anchor, and take my bearings. I quoted Tennyson's Ulysses once; I would say now that instead of Ulysses, for a while, I would prefer to take Telemachus's role and be "centred in the sphere Of common duties, decent not to fail/In offices of tenderness, and pay/Meet adoration to my household gods".
After reviewing all the factors involved, I've come to the conclusion that I just can't afford to take up the opportunity offered to me at Glasgow, and I don't wish to take up the offer at Abertay. A chance to live in the UK is one of my dearest wishes, but it has to be balanced against other goals, and in this case it has to give way.
I deeply regret that the UK government has changed the rules on work visas the way it has over the last several years, putting what was an HSMP visa, what is now called a Tier 1 visa, out of my reach. I'm also very sorry I didn't take the chance I had to get one before they changed, but that's water under the bridge. A student visa is the only measure open to me, and I'm not prepared to invest more than half my life savings in a course of action that would, at best, give me a few year's grace before being forced to return to the US. And I think that this of all times is one of the worst to be swelling the throng of Britain's job seekers.
To those of you this disappoints, I'm sorry. To those of you who sympathize, I thank you. I don't want to debate or further explain this decision or receive well-meaning advice to change my mind, which is why I'm disabling comments. This isn't the choice that some of my friends would make or would wish me to make, but I can only say that it's my choice; different people makes different decisions. I hope that my choice doesn't cause friends to scoff at me or think less of me, but that's not really up to me; I can only do what I think is right for me.
Goals are important, and this has been a goal that both helped me keep going and caused problems for me over the last 5-6 years. I have some ideas about what goals might replace it, but for now I want to have a little time in my life where I can just take down the mainsail, put out a sea anchor, and take my bearings. I quoted Tennyson's Ulysses once; I would say now that instead of Ulysses, for a while, I would prefer to take Telemachus's role and be "centred in the sphere Of common duties, decent not to fail/In offices of tenderness, and pay/Meet adoration to my household gods".
