You could say I had a less than conventional education. Due to family circumstances, I attended quite a number of schools and left school when I was just 16. I was born in Limerick city, but my first school was a little private one, Miss Flaherty's, in Ennis Co Clare. That school really set me up for life. I was made to feel special.

When I was nine I was sent to the Sisters of Mercy Convent in Ennis. After a couple of years I moved to St Mary's College, Mountmellick, Co Laois, to join my sister in boarding school. I loved St Mary's and the Presentation Sisters.

I desperately wanted to be a teacher, and cried when I had to leave there to attend the VEC school in Ennis. Later my family relocated to Youghal, Co Cork, and I did a secretarial course in the local VEC. I found I loved shorthand and typing. I left school and took a job.

Nine years later I left to get married. After the children came along I got back into study and acquired a teacher's diploma in shorthand and typing. By this time we were living in Bandon, Co Cork, and I began to teach in Cork. I was amazed to find they were still using the same textbooks I had used years earlier. I rang Folens to ask about new ones and they suggested I write one for them. I was taken aback, but had strong feelings about how a new one should be done.

Typewriting for the Eighties was published in 1983 and has sold 25,000 copies. By then I was in my late 30s, and decided to use the royalties to pay my fees at UCC. It was wonderful to be able to go to college and I had no difficulty settling in. I was able to type and take notes in shorthand, which was a huge help.

I graduated in sociology and psychology and then did a diploma in guidance and counselling at UCC. I'm now guidance counsellor at St Brogan's College, Bandon, Co Cork. Moving from school to school could be disastrous for a child, but in my case it worked as a positive. I always tell students who are unhappy because they are unable to complete their education for one reason or another that an interruption does not necessarily mean that they won't come back.

Roisin Kellegher is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. The Institute and The Irish Times organise the Higher Options conference, which takes place at the RDS in Dublin next week, September 17th to 19th.