University is the pinnacle of education and something that most
18 year olds look forward too. But are
you really better off for going, rather
than not?
After completing university and coming away proud of the
hard work I had put in (alongside the partying), I was excited to start my career
in the media industry. I walked away with a 2.1 degree in Journalism, my own
blog and plenty of life and writing experience, never did I think for one
minute that I would struggle to gain a job... or even an internship. Now, I know what you’re all thinking, ‘How naïve, of course it was going to be hard!’ but for some reason it never occurred that I would struggle to gain my first or second job in the marketing world. In fact, if anything, from a young age we are brainwashed into thinking that we need to go to university in order to be ‘successful’.
I remember having meetings with my PSE teacher, form tutor and even made to attend career classes, just because I wasn’t sure that uni was for me, like I should be ashamed. Then one day it came to me, I wanted to do journalism.
‘I want to apply for uni, is it too late?’ I said as my tutors eyes lit up, like she was getting a commission off of it, still to this day I don’t know whether I applied for uni because I wanted to go, or because I felt that I should go. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into but I was excited nevertheless.
University is a once in a lifetime experience and I loved every second of it, living away from home, gaining independence, meeting new friends, coming home drunk at 4am and bunking off lectures to go to Westfield's (Mum if you’re reading this, I didn’t do that!). There’s no denying it was fun and it was an amazing experience but if someone told me that my situation would be that I was in 60,000 of debt and still struggle to gain jobs over people that weren't as 'qualified' as me would I still go?
No, probably not!
