gairrhydd | JOBS@GAIRRHYDD.COM MONDAY APRIL 19 2010
22 JOBS & MONEY
About to graduate? Think carefully about your future Katie Greenway Jobs & Money Editor
I really don't want regrets. I am 22 years old, yet I find myself questioning my entire life; my prospects and expectations. I suppose coming from a state school background in a little town in South Wales, getting to University seemed to be all I could think of in those bleak few weeks surrounding A Level finals. In the months running up to my degree finals last summer, all I could allow myself to think about, other
than the law of Trusts of course, was securing my 2:1 and making sure I got myself into the best possible position for my future. I have a place, which I deferred, on a postgraduate course at Cardiff University which is due to commence in September 2010. I deferred because it would costs me tens of thousands of pounds and to be quite honest I couldn't be sure that it was what I wanted to do. I therefore convinced myself that a year in industry would allow the fog to clear on my blinkered perspective, and then I would know. It is April, and I am just over half way through my year out, and more confused and frustrated than ever. I
find myself trying to make decisions about my future and analysing my value system. I am considering whether my youth - a life with all my friends and family in it - is more important to me than money, social status, and mine and my family's expectations. I have many friends who are either trying to make the same decisions as me or have already had to make them. I know that there are hundreds of you weighing up the exact same things right now and, believe me, you are not alone; you are not alone in your confusion or frustration. Perhaps like me you are sick to death of even talking or thinking about it - yet you are unable to escape the
constant absent daze that we all adopt when we are without reason or answer because, without choice or option, we cannot stop thinking. However, I am slowly coming to terms with the notion that I may never know what is the right choice for me. How dull would life be if we never made mistakes? There would be no adventure, no stories to share, no widsom to pass on. Although we feel the pressure of third parties weighing down on us, pushing us to jump on the requisite bandwagon of our chosen educational paths, I emplore you to take a step back and to make your own decision. There is no wrong job, unless it is
not right for you as an individual of course. Do not feel pressured to do what is expected of you as opposed to something that you actually want to do. It may not hold the same level of respect as certain other jobs, but your happiness hangs in the balance. Approval fades, but self-respect, happiness and integrity will keep you going forever. I truly believe that as long as you are motivated and interested you will be successful in anything that you do. The money, the status and the respect will come from the success; the difficulty is finding it.
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