Image by jurvetson
I have written before about how taking up my law course was the best decision I’d made in a very long time. My mother commented to me this week just gone that it was possibly the wrong time to have started, since I’ve had to take out a loan in a very unstable financial climate. My response was that if I wasn’t doing the course, I’d feel like my career was going absolutely nowhere.
When choosing my a-levels (exams taken at age 18), I was fascinated by psychology (still am), but I didn’t bother choosing it as I was led to believe that there was no career in the subject, and that was what ultimately mattered. There was no point in taking it at a-level because obviously I had no intention of taking it at university, since it wasn’t a traditional, academic subject, according to many of the people around me at the time. I of course, now know this to be rubbish, but I do believe they had my best interests at heart. I therefore ended up choosing maths, chemistry, physics and biology, not because I wanted to, but because they seemed like sensible choices. (I later dropped biology for English, since I did far better than I expected to in my GCSE English exam at 16).
I know that because of that decision, I obtained lower grades than I should have done.
Image by John-Morgan
The same dilemma faced me when choosing my university subject. I started out studying Information Management and Computing, because I thought that a career in computers was a good idea. I’d wanted to do Law or English, but was encouraged to take an IT-based subject because Law was “too vocational if I wasn’t 100% sure yet” and English, again, had “no clear career path”. I’m sure you know the rest of the story by now. I spent 2 years on the course, didn’t achieve the grades I thought myself capable of so transferred to Publishing with English, graduated with a 2:1 and am now converting to Law.
My point is that despite all the well-intentioned advice I was given, I still ended up studying first English and now Law. I also like to read about psychology and other such subjects as much as I can, and think that psychology could have been quite a beneficial subject to compliment legal studies. I wasn’t happy doing anything else, and thus, I didn’t achieve what I was capable of.
It has really struck me this last few weeks that I am really, truly on the right path now, the path I should have been on from the beginning. Whilst I appreciate the help and advice that people have offered me, and I know their intentions were good, the path they urged me onto was not right for me and in my heart, I knew that.
In the interviews which I will begin to publish shortly, I asked what one piece of advice my interviewees would give my readers. Right now, my own piece of advice would be this: When it comes to the big decisions that will affect your future, consider the advice and wisdom of others because they can point out many things you may have missed. If you really feel that you must go against their advice for the sake of your own happiness then do not hesitate. Don’t let considerations such as future earnings and the “academic worth” of the subject change your mind, you will be happier in the long-term if you follow your heart.
There’s no point in earning a massive fortune if you’re miserable, better to live simply doing something that you love.
Now that’s good advice!
I agree that listening to your heart is much better than basing all your decisions on the advice of others. It’s so nice to hear that you’re following your dreams!
Oh for goodness sakes — I can’t believe people still do that ‘if you study x you’ll never get a job!’ stuff!! I studied English Literature — there was never anything else I wanted to do — and in my first summer at Uni I worked in a prestigious law office to earn some pennies. One day one of the lawyers marched up to me and said “someone just told me you study English Literature! What a stupid idea! Where’s that going to get you in the world?!” Now that I’m working as an English lecturer and running my own small press at just 22, I feel like calling him up…
Basically, people will always have opinions on what you’re doing. The fact that I am into writing and academia still makes my mum flinch — she calls me up and asks what I’m doing and there’s always this underlying “I wish you’d just become an officeworker, it would be so much simpler” thing going on. At the end of the day, even if the people filling you with doubt are your loved ones, you need to follow your heart. Good to see you’re doing that! Good luck to you! x
When I left GCSE’s, I went to a career advisor saying I wanted to a full time Art course. He told me to take on 4 a-levels – including Psychology and Sociology – and I burnt out.
A few years later, after gaining experience in an office, I started a full time Art course – and I’m now studying BA Hons Fine Art. If I’d have just listened to my heart, then I’d have got here sooner!
No matter what the economic climate, there will always be people working in any kind of job – even the *impossible* ones. People will become movie stars and get novels published and achieve all kinds of dreams. It might be much harder work than it is when times are good, but it’s still possible. At the same time, there are a lot of people in *safe* industries like IT that are out of work. Who can predict what’s safe and sure?
Listen to everyone but trust yourself