Aspirations

Almost 7 years ago, in my final year of college, I had everything UCAS and university related rammed down my throat, giving me the impression that I had to have a plan to take the next step in my life. I ended up finishing college still not knowing what I wanted to do, and went straight into work with the civil service, followed by Tesco, biding my time until I knew 100 percent what I wanted to do for a career.

That thinking process took a lot longer than I was expecting, but in that time I was able to earn money, travel, as well as gain all-important life and work experience, before heading back into education.

I had to convince myself that I wasn't too old to do a university course, with my 25th birthday only a few weeks away.
"I'll be getting on for 28 by the time I've finished my degree...", I thought, feeling the pressure of having to have a career sorted as quickly as possible.
"That means I'll be nearly 30, then that's only 10 years until I'm 40. I've left this way too late", I continued to snowball.

I eventually calmed myself, sought out other people's opinions about what I was planning on doing, and was assured that it would indeed be a great move, and that it wasn't anywhere near too late. I actually had my reference written by an old colleague of mine who didn't graduate until he was approaching 30. That was the first time I felt properly confident about the next big step I wanted to take.

Right now, I don't regret taking so long to decide. Being a mature student puts me in good stead to achieve my target of a first, because I find myself infinitely more interested in learning new things, performing better in an academic environment than perhaps I was when I was a kid. It also helps that I have experienced the real world outside of education, having knowledge of what to expect beyond this programme.

I'll be doing the best I can in St. Helens, and wherever I do my top-up year. I'm still yet to decide on what I want to do in my third year; whether I want to carry on with Applied Computing, covering as many areas as possible, or to specialise in a particular field, such as networking or web design. These next 2 years will shape that, and once I've achieved my degree, the plan is to head down to London to be successful in whatever I end up doing.

Let's see how that goes.