The thought of having to choose what you want to do after school is scary. Whatever you are going to choose to do might have an influence on your whole life, or maybe you will have to realize that you still don't have a clue what you want to be one day and end up switching between jobs or uni courses every few weeks or months.
I've never had a proper idea of what I would want my job to be one day. Although, actually that's a lie. I've always known what I want to become,
only, it's just not very realistic.
I am not saying that it's impossible to write and publish books as your job, but being able to live off of it is definitely not done by applying to some random company you found in the newspaper. I have never and will never cross it out of my life plans, but I am aware of the fact that I need some education to pay for a living first/along with it. And that's exactly what has been bothering me for a long time.
The Pressure
I am sure to say that there are many many people my age, younger and older, that are struggling to find out what they want to do and who they want to be. There are so many possibilities out there, yet none of us seem to be able find out what's right. Especially in the last few years of your education, there's a lot of pressure on you to finally find out what you want to do. Our society seems to have created this ideal image that we somehow all feel pressured
to follow.
Finish school, maybe a gap year or start uni straight away, start working, and then in the best case get married and have kids all before the age of 30. What? Why are we putting such pressure on us, when there's actually no reason to hurry? Yes you need to work for a living, but that doesn't mean you are forced to go to uni or start working straight after school.
My Own Struggles
I thought I had my plan figured out for at least another year after I'm done with my A-levels. For many years I thought I would be doing a year as an Au-Pair in England, and then probably go to uni afterwards. I didn't know what I wanted to study at that point,
just that I wanted to go to uni.
I have to say though - I never wanted to go to uni because I felt pressured to study. I have always wanted to go to uni, purely for the reason that I love learning, and I love learning new things even more when it comes to the things that I enjoy (I am not saying I love studying maths physics etc, just learning in general).
However, with the start of this year, new perspectives somehow came rolling around, and now I seem to be just as clueless as before, even though I have done many hours of googling, thinking and deciding. It's not that my own lack of interest in a particular uni course is the problem anymore, but the fact that the things that come with it might not adjust to
my life.
I had been going back and forth between doing something with Tourism, Translating or Journalism, changing my opinion pretty much every single day or week. For around 3 or 4 months now, I think I may have finally decided that I would like to do something with Journalism. Even though there are uni courses for that here in Germany, where it's a lot cheaper to study than in many other places, none of them really sparked my interest. There was no uni who's website I would be googling for days and weeks, and that just kept hanging onto me.
I never thought studying in Great Britain would be a possibility, as it's expensive as heck. I knew studying in Scotland as an EU student was cheaper, but I always was somehow scared in a way that I would never be able to understand their accents if I
went to study there.
However, after stressing about not finding the perfect course at a German uni, I still found myself googling universities in Scotland. It was actually just meant to be for fun, I didn't expect to find anything. Yet, I ended up finding my dream course. I was always joking about how my perfect course would be something that included English, Creative Writing, Journalism and Tourism at the same time. Well, guess what I found.
A course called "English & Journalism & Creative Writing" at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow. I couldn't believe it, and ended up finding out all about that course, the uni, the city etc. I have literally gotten obsessed with the idea of going there and studying that course.
What's stopping you then, you may be thinking? Well, sadly, a lot of things right now. The main factor is definitely costs. You have to study that course for 4 years. As an EU citizen you pay ₤1,820 per year to study there, plus living and travelling costs, which is already a lot of money for someone like me. However, thanks to Brexit, there's a very likely chance that once Great Britain is no longer part of the EU, I would have to pay around ₤13,500 (I think the price has actually risen to over 14,000 starting in the new term). That's a shit load of money that I could probably never get together. The EU citizen price is one thing, but that international one is killing me by just thinking about it. ₤1,820 might be doable if I worked my bum off and got some
kind of scholarship or funding.
But that's the next problem. I still haven't found anywhere, neither in Germany nor in Scotland, that would offer to help me with that for a longer duration than one year of studying. That would still leave me to pay ₤5,460 plus living costs etc for three years. I don't even want to add up how much money I would have to make each month in order to live up to that. I don't even have the time to save so much money in advance, as my only chance to still get to pay the EU prize would probably be if I started next year.
My smallest problems are literally the actual application, the personal statement, wider reading and actually getting in, which is kind of sad in my opinion. I kept making myself think that I can do it, but I honestly don't know if I can. The thought of being in debt just doesn't go well with my character traits. However, I would actually give up the gap year I had been urging for just to go to that uni, even if I have been urging to have a year off school and studying for so long. It's literally my dream course, and I would literally do everything (except for going in dept though haha) right now to get in and study there.
On the other side, I am also trying to be a realistic, and trying hard not to get my hopes up to high and look for a plan B instead. Au-Pair is still in the back of my mind, but for some reason it just doesn't seem as appealing to me anymore as it did until a few months ago. I just feel like I would be stuck in that one place for so long instead of seeing something of the world. Which is funny, because if I ended up going to uni I would probably be stuck in one place for a long time too. I have been thinking about other things like Work&Travel, but I am not really sure whether that would be for me. I like to have a plan, and I feel like that's the type of thing where you would have to be a lot more spontanous than I am. Plainly travelling without earning any money is just not possible for me, just as much as it's not possible for me to just go to uni for so much money without doing a lot of research and putting a lot of thought into it. I'm not sure whether a mix of these things would be the right thing either.
Don't Be Discouraged
There are probably many of you out there, reading this right now, who are just as unsure of their future after school. But let me tell you - it's totally fine not to have everything figured out already. You probably know that already, but I feel like a lot of us sometimes need
to be reminded of that.
Not everyone gets born and initially knows what they want to become one day. I have friends that have known what they wanted to do since they were very young, others who don't even know what field they want to go into. There's so much pressure, so many possibilities, yet somehow so little time. It's an important decision to make, so it's not one that always comes easy or quickly. But what's sure is that one day you will have found something that is for you, whether it takes weeks or years to figure out what that is.
Tips & Tricks
If you are still trying to find out what field you want to work in, there are a few basic tips out there. A lot of people recommend online tests, but personally, I didn't find them very helpful, as I got told that I would be the perfect maths teacher or actress. Take in mind, that the subject I hate most is maths and that I am probably the worst actor ever. Still, I would advise you to just try some, and if they don't work, well, at least you've tried.
What personally helped me the most is going to job and gap year fairs, googling and getting books filled with all uni courses available in Germany.
Have a google or keep your eyes open on Facebook and outside to catch any upcoming fairs about jobs, uni or gap years. Take every opportunity to go to some. If none of them have anything that interests you (which I highly doubt as they cover many fields) at least you'll go home with a new set of pens. 😁
Googling is helpful whether you already know what job fields you are interested in or not. There are several pages that are going to provide you with information about almost anything. Watching some advice videos of youtubers can
also be quite helpful.
Gladly, were I live we can get a whole book about all uni courses that are available in Germany for free, once we're in our second to last year of A-levels, and there is also one that is purely for jobs. The one about jobs hasn't helped me that much, but the uni one definitely did. It's a huge ass book but it has so much useful information inside, and I am so glad to be able to use this. It not only covers a general explanation of course fields and jobs intertwining with it, but it also gives you tips on finance, study abroad etc, and has every single uni course written down in each field that you can do in Germany. It's so well done! If you have any chance to get anything like this, please do it, because it can be very very helpful to get an idea of what interests you, what you would consider studying and if so, where you would have to look
instead of doing blind googling.
You can also ask professionals or your teachers for help! I personally don't like that idea as I rather find out what I want myself, but if you truly have no idea, give it a try.
Go Your Own Way
In the end, you will have to decide for yourself what's best for you.
Please don't let anyone tell you what you need to do after school. By saying that I don't mean you shouldn't give a shit about your future and just spend your whole time being lazy and enjoying mum's home-cooked meals etc. I am saying, that you should
do whatever feels right for you.
If your parents want you to become a doctor, that's cool. But if you would rather become a florist, become a florist. It's you who is going to spend the rest of your life doing that job, not them. It's your life, where you can make your own decisions, even if your parents were so nice to give birth to you and bring you up all these years. Your happiness is important, and you won't end up being happy in your life if you let your friends and family tell you what you need to do.
Talking about doing what makes you happy and doing whatever feels right for you, please don't feel pressured to go to university either, let alone do your A-levels. Uni is not for everyone, and if you feel like it's not the right thing for you, don't do it. Uni will always have it's arms spread open for you, even if you don't want to do it right now and maybe in a few years you decide you actually do want to go. And even if you will never be interested in uni - that's totally fine. You should not go to uni because there is so much pressure on you because everyone else around you is going to uni and because your family and society are expecting it from you. Also, you might not even need a uni degree for your dream job, and you can still make great money if you don't go to uni, even if society tries to make us believe otherwise.
In the case of education and jobs, you should always put yourself and your own interests and happiness first.
Gap Years Are Awesome
As you've already heard, even though I am considering uni, I've also been thinking about a gap year for a long time. Gap years can be a great opportunity, whether it's just for your own pleasure, whether you want to do it for your CV or whether you just want to take that year so that you may finally find out what interests you and what you want to do. For me it was always a mix of the three.
There are so many different things you can do in a gap year, whether you want to get outside of your country or not. You can just do some jobbing, trying different things or just earning some money for other things. You can use that time to do an internship or a few different internships, whether abroad or in your home country. You can do volunteering in pretty much any country. You could just spend some time travelling if you have the funds for it. You could do Work & Travel and gain job experience whilst travelling. You can become an Au-Pair. You could also just do a whole mash up of all of the things I just listed.
There are so many opportunities out there, you just have to find out whether that's the right thing for you, and if so - which one do you decide for.
The positive side of gap years is that after so many years of school and only "small" breaks, you can finally take out some to enjoy the things you do and try something different. You don't only do something for your CV, but also for yourself and you as a person, time where you can finally see the world if you want to and open your horizon to new things. You don't really have any responsibilities yet, it would be a great time to do it, if you think that a gap year is something that you would enjoy.
~
This has probably not helped many of your with your own struggles of deciding what to do after school. Sorry for that. I tried. I have been wanting to get these words out there for a few weeks now, but never had the courage to actually do it. The topic has been haunting me for the past few weeks, and whenever I think about it, it only makes me more sad that I don't know what's going to come.
But in the end, I think we'll all find our place. If you can take anything from this blogpost, please remember that you should never feel pressured into doing anything. Whether it's uni, a certain job or something else. Put your own interests, wishes and happiness first. Remember, that the perfect job isn't a job. It's supposed to be something that you enjoy like a hobby. And please - don't give up if you haven't found the perfect profession and/or uni course for you yet. The best things in life take time.
Now that this very serious post has finally come to an end, I would like to know how you feel about the struggle of job orientation, uni courses and gap years. Do you feel the pressure? Are you torn yourself or do you know exactly what you want? Share your thoughts. I believe there are a few of us here, who are open to any kind of words that make them feel better and like they are not alone with these struggles.
Have a beautiful day ♥
Lots of Love, Jacqueline Xx
