Ben Fogle on escaping the linear model - Life After Sixth Form (Post 4) - Lifestyle Monday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Personally, I find it crazy that this time next year, I will be on a completely different journey to the one that I'm currently on now. Although I don't currently know where exactly I will be and what my destination will look like, I know that I'm trying my very best to figure it out and I know that my efforts will eventually lead me to something good.
However, recently you may have noticed that I've found the process of discovering what I want to do, quite difficult. I think that I've mostly found it difficult because I'm finding that I'm being influenced by so many different people, I'm beginning to feel that my own aspirations are being lost in the conflict.
Some people genuinely want to go to university because they believe that it will give them the necessary qualifications for their chosen career or field of study. Some people genuinely want to go to university because they believe that it will allow them to figure out what it is that they really want to do. To me, I entirely respect anyone's decision or reason to go to university and I genuinely don't hold anything against universities as I think that they can give you that step in the door to get better opportunities. Nevertheless, I do feel as though, whether consciously or unconsciously, I'm being pushed to choose university. At my college, there are lots of teachers who have either been to the University of Cambridge or the University of Oxford. My teachers are incredibly intelligent people who do genuinely have passion for the subject that they teach but I feel sometimes, they have not experienced any other option post-sixth, other than university. In my recent interview with my form tutor, I expressed an interest in maybe doing a gap year and yes, he was largely accepting of the idea because he believed that it was important that I took the time out to properly think about my future. But I did still feel that he was still trying to get me to consider university. He said that a gap year isn't a year off and that I will still have to work in order to figure out what I want to do. I understand that this is true but I felt as though he was saying this because he believed that university was the safer option. As well as this, he was also trying to get me to consider university after my gap year which I wasn't entirely against but it did feel as though everything that I had to choose for the future, had to gravitate or work towards university. It made me think, is university really the final option?
In college, we have two tutor times and one of the tutor times is dedicated to working on post-sixth form progressions. Students are given the option to work on either their personal statements, university applications, aprenticeships/internships, or things to do during a gap year. The latter doesn't necessarily seem to be the unfavoured option but it certainly looks as though it's the one that is in part, least focused on. This makes me ever so slightly sad because I know that people are worth more than just a degree. I know that it is important for sixth forms to sustain a good reputation, and university admissions certainly have an effect on that, but the ultimate ambitions for students do seem to be unintentionally overlooked at times.
Recently, I was watching Steven Bartlett's interview with Ben Fogle where they talked about self-confidence, dealing with failure, and finding your ambitions. I decided to talk about this podcast on my Instagram stories because to me, it was the most refreshing interview that I think I've ever listened to. If you don't know who Steven or Ben are, Steven is a young entrepreneur and founder of Social Chain, a multi-million dollar company. Ben is a broadcaster and adventurer, best known for his Channel 5 docu-series, New Lives in the Wild, where he stays with individuals who have given up the rat race of modern life, to live more simply and sustainably in the wild. Ben's story really resonated with me because like me, he used to struggle a lot with academics at school and had quite a tough time trying to find his self-confidence. He said in the interview that because he believed that he would fail, often in exams, he did. I was able to relate to this because, this was very much something that I did and still do sometimes. When I look at the person that Ben is now, all I see is an incredibly successful man who has worked tirelessly to get to where he is now. It is often shocking to discovering that his success didn't necessarily come with university straight away. After failing his A-levels, Ben decided to take a year out in Costa Rica to try and discover himself. There, he was able to find his identity and gain more independence, spurring him on to spend a year taking Latin American studies at the the University of Costa Rica. One of my favourite moments in Steven's interview was when Ben said that the most important thing to do after sixth form isn't to necessarily get a degree but to gain experience through work. This reassured me that I don't always have to go to university straight away, in order to get to here I want to be.
In life, we are confined to a very linear system. We go to nursery, then primary school, then secondary school, then sixth form, and then eventually university. We are coaxed into the world of work and being in a routine where our ambitions are directed by other people. We are like the cogs of the machine inside one big factory. I suppose that it is this way because in the past, this system did work for a lot of people. However, I'm slowly discovering that nowadays, more employers are looking for the people with drive and a passion to do work and gain experience. That passion and drive doesn't always get developed through university, sometimes growth comes through throwing yourself in the deep end and getting your hands dirty. Although I have never been the biggest fan of home schooling, I have seen that it allows children to escape the rigid framework of education and really find themselves. I've seen a lot of people who have been homeschooled and have become really successful people. Perhaps its because their education has been in the real world and they therefore know where their education will lead them in life.
Although I don't exactly know what I want to do, I do know that I have the potential to be more than just a cog in the machine of society. I can become my own person. Ultimately I know that through following my heart and being myself, I will find what it is that I really want to do in the future. It may just take some time.
Havs you got any tips for finding out what you want to do? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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Bye,
XOX, Juliette
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