In the words of Harry Styles, “it’s a lifetime of picking from one or the other,” and I can’t help but feel that applies heavily to this argument, where my "one or the other" has always been academia vs employment. When I was 18, I entered full-time work. Whilst I had always had a passion for writing, I didn’t know what I wanted to pursue at university enough complete a full course and the debt lumbered with it. Thus, for three years, I went through admin jobs and worked my way up the career ladder until I became a medical secretary. By all means, the job secured for me what people often regard a “stable life” - a steady income, the offer of a good pension, the chance to work my way up to higher management roles. Yet, if that was the truth, why did I still feel so unfulfilled?
I didn’t want to live with unanswered questions or regret...
The truth was, whilst working, I’d allowed my creative passions to fall by the wayside. My previous dreams of being a writer had been stifled and I often felt too caught up by my full-time hours and the tasks that needed doing outside of work to put pen to paper. I observed the rest of my friends at university, taking steps towards pursuing their dream careers and felt a sense of alienation from it all. Sure, I was pursuing a career but it wasn’t the one I had dreamed of, nor did I feel passionate about doing it for the rest of my life. When I first considered going to uni, however, the logistics of it all terrified me.
my decisions are proof that it’s never too late to start over and put your passions first.
I had a lot of people ask, “Do you really want to give up job security to pursue a three year humanities degree which doesn't necessarily secure you a job at the end of it?” For many, the answer to that question may have understandably been no, but the bigger question which seemed to drown out the uncertainty for me was “what if?” I didn’t want to live with unanswered questions or regret so it finally occurred to me that, at the age of 21, I wanted to be brave. In a mixture of terror and excitement, I left my medical secretary job last summer and began my Journalism course in September. Seven months later, I have assignment deadlines galore, a part-time pub job and the thing I’d dreamed of most - a platform to share my writing.
It’s not that I’m expecting a fairytale ending where I wind up in a job that’s a perfect blend of finantial stability and artistic stimulation, though, of course, I’d love that to be the case. However, I like to think that my decisions are proof that it’s never too late to start over and put your passions first. Dreams look different for everyone and fulfilling them is almost never easy; in fact, it often means giving up or changing a significant amount about your life to pursue them. What I would suggest, though, is never allowing society’s version of fulfillment to skew your own - it will almost always leave you feeling unsatisfied.