They say good things come in threes – and they certainly have for Aberdeenshire graduate Paul Goonan.
The 27-year-old accepted a new job, found out he had passed his university course and welcomed the birth of his son Caleb in a “whirlwind 24 hours”.
Mr Goonon, who lives in Ellon, was already on cloud nine about to welcome his new son into the world when he found out he had also gained a degree in business management.
With such a dramatic chain of events – and in such quick succession – Mr Goonan said he had never experienced anything like it.
“Never, never in my life,” he said.
“I’ve been very fortunate in a lot of things but I’ve never had anything like that happening. Not to that scale anyway.”
The new father had been thinking about going to university for some time and decided he wanted to further his studies after hearing an RGU advert on the radio.
Speaking about the course, he said: “At times it was difficult. We like going on holiday and we had to plan around assessment dates and coursework, and I was extremely busy with work which didn’t help matters.
“It was all about working out what worked best for me. I found that doing a little bit a few nights a week and then a good few hours each day at the weekend worked.”
His family joined him for the celebrations yesterday, including three-month old Caleb.
Mr Goonan is not quite ready to put his pen and paper down yet however, with an eye on a Masters degree in business management.
But for now he is enjoying spending time with his new family.