Dear friends,
Today’s question is…
What colleges have you attended?
It’s odd when we talk about colleges as someone from the UK. A college is where you go between high school and university, but if we are talking about a university, I’ve never been to one.
I know that may sound odd to some, but, when I was 15, I left high school due to having a mental breakdown, and yes, it was that bad. At the time I hated it. Back in the 90s, there was this big thing about doing GCSEs, a level and then a degree, and I always had this guilt that I didn’t achieve that, to be fair, but growing up, I realised that it didn’t matter, but my mental health did.
Even though I left high school without any GCSEs I do have some qualifications that I got from going to college as an adult. They have mostly to do with being creative, mostly photography, which is one of the first things I got into after being ill and is something I still do to some extent. The last qualification I had was media and theatrical makeup. Of course, I don’t use them, although I’m still taking photos and want to start selling prints of some stuff.
Would I go to University?
To be honest I don’t think I would have gone to university when I was younger. I’m a creative person more than anything, and I don’t feel like I missed out on anything, and now it’s like £9 thousand a term, and yes, you can go to university at any age after 18.
But saying that, I think if I wanted to do something like a degree, I’d do it through the open university, which is a distance-learning university, but I’m not sure what I’d do. Even though I’m not academic, there are things that I’m interested in, and it’s something I’d do in the next few years.
Do I regret Not Doing This When I was younger?
Honestly, it would never have happened. I was seriously ill with depression to the point I couldn’t get out of bed I feel that I’ve learnt a lot about myself over the years. I’ve known people who have been to university and don’t use their degrees, and as I have written, there was this guilt I felt growing up because we were all told how we should live our lives by teachers, even in high school. Yeah, if I’m honest, I never liked that. I think it’s partly why I had a nervous breakdown among other things
That’s not to say I’d ever tell anyone not to go to university and I know it’s probably different in the USA. I know you can probably do a lot more with a degree as well, and I’d say if you want to do it, do. But at the same time don’t forget to enjoy life too.
The world is your oyster as they say. Go out and grab it by the balls.
Until the next time
See ya!
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