So that’s me above.. Loving life in San Francisco.
Everything in life that happened prior to this picture being taken lead me to that exact point. What I am about to write now, perhaps completely contradicts my happiness in this picture but nonetheless I won’t shy away from it. What I will say is that I definitely wouldn’t change my life, or anything that has happened along the way. HOWEVER. If I was to educate into making better decisions in life I would have had a gap year between School and University.
So why did I make the decision to go straight from school to Uni?
Firstly, I was dead set on becoming a R.S teacher and so I would go to uni, complete a three year Theology course, then a one year PGCE and bobs your uncle I’d be an NQT earning £26000 a year. …. So why didn’t this happen. Well to start of with I didn’t get into the Uni i wanted so I had to go through this system called ‘Clearing’.. Thus I ended up at the University of Hull on the most mind numbing course for three years. After about a year in I hated the subject and wanted nothing more to do with it. I carried on, Got my degree… at the end of the day, a degrees a degree.
Why did I go to Hull?
Literally EVERYONE I knew was going to Uni. Or, alternatively they were off on organised gap years or had solid plans. I was in a lil of a pickle. Uni was the done thing and I couldn’t really deal with explaining to people why I had stayed at home.
In an ideal world I would have worked for 6 months or so and spent the other away travelling the world. But I know that this wouldn’t have actually happened. I had no intention of going anywhere or seeing anything and no one ever mentioned that I should go and travel. So I went to uni– I followed the crowd. But lets say I had travelled. I have no idea what I would be doing now. But maybe a year out of an academic environment I would have chosen a more practical degree- which in-turn lead to a job in what I call now a more desirable field.
Occasionally I look at 18 year olds that take gap years and spend their Uni summers travelling to various places. I keep thinking. Wow- all that time wasted? I just sat around.
But as I said- what’s happened in my life has happened and now I am finally in a place where I at least semi know what I am doing. So really what I am trying to make here are 2 points.
1) The decisions we make and the paths that we follow all lead us to where we are now. One different decision and one alternative path can change the outcome of your life entirely.
2) Take your time. What you think you want to do at 17 will no doubt have changed by the time you are 23.Do what you want to do and not anyone else. It isn’t giving up, it’s simply changing your mind. Change is a certain in life. You might as well embrace it.
If I give advice to anyone. It would be to have a break. Enter the real world and discover what YOU want to do.
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