• Question: What was your childhood like?

    Asked by Leon teh Lion to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 10 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Francesca Palombo

      Francesca Palombo answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      It was very positive – my parents have always been very supportive, although I chose a different subject than their own (dad: Architecture, mum: Pedagogy). What I am now is especially their merit

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      It was lovely! I grew up in the suburbs of Manchester and had a very happy childhood. My parents weren’t rich but gave my sister and I everything they could. My dad always said “the world’s your lobster girls!” to my sister and I. It didn’t occur to me until I was a teenager that it should be “the world’s your oyster!” He meant we could do achieve anything we wanted to and his support, along with my mum’s meant everything!
      School was sometimes tricky (I was one of two Rochdale football club fans in my entire school so took quite a lot of stick for it!) and I didn’t enjoy English at all! But I loved science and my science teachers were lovely!

    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      It was really nice. Yes, there were difficult times, and I had a bully (so many children do unfortunately), but I didn’t let it get on top of me, and my parents were really supportive of me – they encouraged my “Do what makes you happy” attitude.
      I didn’t start out to follow in their footsteps, however my career trajectory is looking very similar to my father’s career in university lecturing, although he is not in chemistry!

    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      My childhood was exceptional, I enjoyed primary school, which was in a local community where everyone knew each other. I had the opportunity to go to the best secondary school on the island by being ranked in the top 20 students of my year, which made my education a lot easier.

      Apart from that I have three siblings who are much older then me, so I was the baby brother who got everything that he wanted whenever he wanted. I remember them taking me to the beach on a daily basis when they started to drive, that was fun.

      I also have nearly 40 cousins, and family reunions were a blast, most of the cousins are of similar age, so we used to drive our parents crazy, but they loved it, seeing us all happy and enjoying ourselves.

      Amongst my school peers I was very well respected, I did not care much about marks, never did and it will be difficult to start now, I just wanted to enjoy what I was doing.

      I have to say I am highly competitive when it comes to competitions, especially in sports. I hate losing, and although it is important to participate it is more important to win. Ofc, losing is still part of the experience, but I wanted to be the best in everything I did, and that is part of why I am currently doing a PhD, cos I want to be the best I can possibly be in my research area.

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