From my North Norfolk News column of 10 September 2007. Lightly edited from my original copy; the views reflect my perspective as an 18-year-old.
This week sees my friends, and other teenagers my age, prepare for university. In just a week they’ll be setting off for destinations far and wide across the country, taking on another three years of education. But when I tell people that I’ve decided not to go, they seem surprised.
Ever since the start of college, I had it clear in my mind I wouldn’t be going to university. It’s a choice I do sometimes regret, but I firmly believe it is the right one.
In my teachers’ view, university is the right way to go. Of course they would say that, having been through it themselves. According to them it brings you a degree, and gives you that boost you need to succeed. But is that really what my friends and teenagers alike are thinking right now? A lot seemed clueless about what degree they were going to take three months ago, and chose their university going on which one had the best nightlife. And why shouldn’t they? That is what university is all about these days!
For every person who wants to come out with a degree, there’ll be two that have gone just for the social life. No-one fancies the idea of hard work in their first year, and not everyone has made up their mind about what they want to do after university. Although I have the grades to make university, I want to work in media, and I am determined to do that by not going to university. After all it’s mostly about experience, not a qualification on a piece of paper.
However, much like similarly aged students, I spent a long time deliberating whether I’d regret not having the social side of it all. For some, that didn’t take much thought, for me it took a lot longer. It’ll be me who is left behind when everyone goes to university, and it will be me that will be stuck with the same old ways of finding entertainment in the evening.
And then there’s the doom and gloom money aspect of it all. Even the most organised and careful of people end up with debt at the end of university. Don’t assume, though, that I’ll be rolling in it. A common assumption when I tell people I’m not off to university is that the money will be pouring in. I’ve done my fair share of unpaid work recently, including the week at Radio 1 in London. As for every bit of work experience I do, I need to take time off work and pay for travel. It seems no matter how ambitious us teenagers are, we will be the ones feeling a sting in the pocket no matter what route we take to achieve it.
So whether I regret not having a student life or not this year is yet to be seen. One thing is for sure, that while my friends prepare to pack and leave me, it has provided me with more determination to succeed in hunting down a full-time job that suits me and to make the most of my time away from textbooks, exams and revision hell!