Social StudentSadly (devastatingly) I have come to the end of my time at University. So now the summer (and the time that I could kid myself I was busy because school kids were off too) is almost over. In fact, my younger sister goes back to school in a mere 9 days! Reality check for me.
The main problem I have found with graduating is that everyone, and I mean everyone, believes that since you’ve done a degree you now know what you want to do…FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. The question of “so what’s the next step?” is one that I have heard from family, friends (they really should know better), and even random customers I’ve served in my very very occasional job as a barmaid. The problem is, I don’t feel like my life can be taking any steps right now…because I’m not sure what direction I would be stepping in. Instead I feel like I’m on one of those travellator things they have in airports…going along aimlessly passing other walkers. My end goal is pretty uncertain – I could be heading for Gate 1 or Gate 100, I honestly have no idea. I know there are things I could be doing to make the end of the travellator come a little quicker (like, maybe, walking) and maybe then I could find out my destination but I feel like my feet are stuck to the ground. I quite simply have no idea where to begin. So instead, I feel like I’m ending up having a gap life at the moment. By that I mean that my planned gap year is definitely not going to be only a year since I am currently firmly in my overdraft and have no plans to leave the country any time soon.
The one thing I have learnt from this gap life scenario that I’m living in is that actually most people don’t know what they want to do in life. This is something I actually find really scary! I kind of always thought that at some point in life I would end up doing something that I loved doing…and maybe I still will but I don’t think I’ll know until I end up doing it. My advice would be to have interests. I bake, I play guitar and I read a helllll of a lot. Most of the people I’ve spoken to who do love their jobs and know that they’re doing the right thing for them are people who have stumbled upon this pathway by just doing things that they love in their everyday lives. Mary Berry – take me on as an apprentice? Somehow I don’t see that happening…but I definitely feel more comfortable on my travellator journey with my cakes and books.