So at 17 you're meant to decide what it is your going to do for the rest of your life, right?
That's pretty much it isn't it? Well even before that you are choosing the subjects you're going to do to get you were you are going, you're choosing whether your going to uni, whether you should get a job, whether there other options and routes you can take.
I did a Psychology degree and did well, I got a first class, but it's never what I say when someone asks me what I consider as one of my achievements. To be honest since I got it I'm quite embarrassed to mention it and never offer it up in conversation. Why? I don't think it did me any favours. I went to university at 17 with no idea why I was going there, I didn't know what else I wanted to do I left with an amazing degree result and no idea what to do with it. I still don't. It took me until I was in my late twenties to have the guts to try something completely different and change my direction. Whenever I find myself at a cross roads in my life I find myself back asking that question of what it is I want to be when I grow up.
My friend gave me this quote many years ago and it's always given me some solace that I'm certainly not the only person that has internal dilemmas with what they should be/want to be/actually do...
"It was also Miuccia Prada who said 'I thought fashion was stupid because I thought there were more intelligent and noble professions, like politics" and I think every woman has this hesitation at one time or another. I did. I spent four years at college trying to find out what I wanted to do that did not involve the fashion industry. But I always came back to it. And not for the free samples (which are not as free as you might think). I came back to it because I was in love with style, and I finally recognised it as something important and influential" Nina Garcia, The Little Black Book of Style.
I suppose what I'm saying is that it's OK to take a change in direction, that choosing something that might seem riskier, that following your heart can be the right thing to do, that starting out from scratch (again) isn't a bad choice. What do you think? Can you change around what 'you do'? Have you thought about a 'career change'?
Thank you Cherry for sending me this quote all those years ago I still think of it every time I question what it is I should do/be (which happens a lot!) here it is pride of place on my inspiration board | soundtrack today was 'Princess Sophia, Poppy on the iPad next to me...don't judge me)
