Are we too young to decide what to study at university? Which career we want? And just what we want in life in general? From personal experience, I would say yes. Yes we are!
By 18, some people are already engaged, some have babies on the way and I’m just sitting at the computer, with a ton of junk food, being a typical student, having a breakdown over what the next chapter of life holds for me! Your life is like a book; you have a beginning, an end and a whole load of other stuff in between, of which we get to dictate what happens. At 18, for most people, we’re only a quarter of a way through our story, so do we really know what we want the final three quarters of it to contain? I certainly don’t! Exams are fast approaching and I’m nearing the end of my time at Sixth Form, and I’m nearing the end of another chapter in life. Am I certain Linguistics is what I want to study at university? No. Do I want to spend at least 3 years of my life, dedicating my studies to something I may not even want to do in the future? No. It’s a big decision and to be honest I don’t think I’m at the age where I can make such an important life decision with a high degree of certainty.
A question we’re asked from a very young age is “What do you want to be when you grow up?” For most people it’s a an astronaut, a singer and in some cases, even a dinosaur… let’s be real, for the majority of us, that changes drastically in our first 18 years of life, and may still be changing now. I know I’ve gone through many phases including, wanting to be a power ranger (the green one was definitely the coolest), an artist, a policewoman, a physiotherapist, a primary school teacher and currently a forensic linguist. All very different from each other, and who knows, it’ll probably change again once I go to university.
3 in 5 Britons have come to realise the career they’ve chosen isn't what they thought it’d crack up to be and are desperate for a career change, according to the Microsoft search engine Bing. To be fair I don’t blame them. They probably knew less than we do today about the array of careers out there, because they didn’t have the internet to google search the jobs that aren’t as dull as others, can earn you a bit more money, and are without those all annoying colleagues.
“17 years old and I’ve experienced all that there is to be experienced.” Anyone who can says that is probably not human, and is some kind of time travelling specimen. First of all, how do you even do that?! Secondly, I’m jealous that you’ve got your life together already, because I haven’t and probably never will!
The top 10 dream jobs:
- Pilot
- Working for a charity or non-profit organisation
- Writer/Author
- Photographer
- Musician/Singer
- Sports Trainer/Coach
- Formula 1/Moto GP/Rally driver
- Actor
- Journalist
- Artist
According to a UK survey by Bing in 2012.
