I just took a photo of a specimen I've had in my collection for some time, a Epidote from The Glen Sannox Barytes Mine on the Isle of Arran, Scotland

This specimen is rather special to me, because it marks a significant change in my life. I had worked hard at school to get to University and, of course, I wanted to study Geology. I did what I needed to do, and I got offers at every univeristy I applied to, including the Royal School of Mines in London, one of the two best Geology universities in the country at the time. (I also got an offer from Manchester University even though I didn't bother going to the interview and never told them I wasn't turning up!)

But I found the first year at University disappointing. It was uninspiring, there was very little about minerals, and I didn't really find anyone within the class I was in that I got on with very well. They also messed me around by telling me I was 'over-qualified' to do the basic computing and maths module of the course, and instead invited me to spend that time on their computer systems helping them fix some software they couldn't get to work! That was all fine until right at the end of the year when they suddenly sprung on me that I would have to do the exams for that module even though I hadn't been to any of the lectures and hadn't prepared. Although the computing side was easy, there was quite a lot of maths stuff in it I wasn't expecting and had no clue about, so I failed the module.

Towards the end of the first year, we had a field trip to the Isle of Arran in Scotland. The task was to create a geological map based on our fieldwork, which involved going up and down hills, taking rock samples and measuring contact angles, etc. Which might actually have been quite fun if it hadn't been pouring non-stop with rain and howling wind. And I had run out of money and there was nowhere to get cash from in the town - so I started having to ration my food supplies. I was cold, wet, hungry and miserable.

One by one, my bits of equipment broke or was lost. My mapping pen broke, my clinometer broke. I lost the lenses out of my handlens somehow. All I had left was my hammer. The one bright part of the trip was a mine dump on the southern side of the mapping area, for an old barytes mine. It wasn't exactly on the area that I was meant to be mapping, but it was close enough that I could drift over and take a look.

Still, I had a map to produce, and I had taken what notes I could, and was by this point struggling with only a hammer and poor visibility in the strong rain. So, I was almost positive about the whole thing until the moment the wind caught my noteboard, blew all my notes out of my hands, and I watched helplessly as they flew straight into the fast-running stream and were carried off towards the sea.

I had only one day left, there was no way I could start again, and I decided there and then that I wasn't even going to try. The mine dumps were nearby, I needed to cheer myself up. So off I went to the dumps, and despite the wind (the rain had died down a little by this point), I found a piece of rock with nice green crystals on - Epidote.



When I found this, I realised my big mistake. Geology for me was a hobby, it had to be something I did for fun. Trying to study at university to make it my career was wrong, and by this time I already had been earning money in the IT world (during my summer break). So I told some people there and then that I wasn't going to do the map, and I was going to quit the course. I remember the last day, it was actually sunny, the first day without rain, and I decided I would just go for a walk around. One of the other members of the group asked me if they could borrow my hammer, as I didn't need it. Sure, I said, it's the only thing that I actually have left, everything else broke or was lost.

When they came back that evening and said "Oh, I'm sorry, I left your hammer on top of the mountain", I simply said "Yes, of course". It was inevitable.

So... I went back to London, I stayed until the end of the term (just in case I changed my mind), and went back to doing IT work in the summer while I thought about my future. I decided to stay at the IT summer job for 18 months!

Thinking back now, did I make the right decision? Of course I did!

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