Student Special: Go Your Own Way – "Keep your options open. Not every decision is final"

I’m writing this having just spent far too long staring at the vegetable selection in Lidl, before deciding which I’ll have with my dinner. I’m now re-considering whether broccoli was the best choice, but it’s in the saucepan, so I’ll have to go with it. Decisions have never been my strong point.

Unlike having broccoli with your dinner, there’s a lot at stake if you just “go with” a college course that you don’t like. The best advice I can offer college newbies who – like me – struggle with decisions, is to keep your options open. Not every decision is final.

To illustrate my point, here’s some decisions I made throughout my Leaving Cert year…

1.  “I’m going to be a nurse.”

This one came to me after a friend of mine did her first shot of sambuca and lasted about as long as my broccoli in the saucepan. I spent two hours holding her hair back as the sambuca returned to haunt her in the ladies room. She, being very grateful, told me I would make a great nurse.

When I told my mother about the notion, I was a little insulted at her reaction: hearty laughter. “You have about as much patience as my little finger,” she said.

Lesson learned: Mother knows best. Patience, I also discovered, was something I’d need to practise to avoid rushing rashly into any big decision.

2. “I’d make a great lawyer.”

This stemmed from an argument with dad. I can’t remember what it was about, but I remember the look on his face when he realised that I was right. Admittedly, this didn’t happen very often, but I was very proud of myself.

Apparently, so was my mother. She watched – bemused as I ran verbal rings around my dad – before leaving the room with her closing statement: “You’d make a great lawyer.”

Lesson learned: Mother knows best most of the time. It takes much more than winning a brief argument to make a great lawyer. After researching what pursuing a law career would really entail, I knew it wasn’t for me.

3. “I’ll be a Speech and Language Therapist.”

This idea sprang into life a few hours after I’d ditched the law degree. Language has always been one of my true loves, so maybe I was on the right track this time! Now, it’s possible I would have made a great Speech and Language Therapist, but I suddenly realised that what I was looking for was a “job title”.
Lesson learned: Cue decision number 4.

4. “I need to stop thinking about the word ‘career’.”

I am generally a stubborn person. As a result, I was growing tired of changing my mind. And one part of me was adamant that I should stick with going the Speech and Language route. It sounded like a solid... career. The more I thought about it, however, the clearer it became that being a Leaving Cert student is overwhelming enough without having to decide what you want to do every day for your working life. Most people never figure this out, and at 17 or 18, it’s virtually impossible.

Lesson learned: Take a step back and think about a different approach entirely...

5.“I’ll do what I enjoy.”

The truth was, I had absolutely no idea what long-term career I wanted to pursue – but I knew that Music and English were my favourite subjects, so I decided to study both of them at UCC. “BA in Music and English” didn’t come with a job description, but I wasn’t ready to pigeonhole myself. I’m still not.

There is an air of finality about your last year in school, but in reality it’s only the beginning. You have the rest of your life to carve out a career. So if you’re struggling to decide, just think about what you’d enjoy doing – whether that means looking for work experience, taking a short course, or following the university route. You do have time, and you can change your mind.

Lesson learned: I’m heading back to Lidl to get one of those variety bags of vegetables.

Read the full Student Special in the new issue of Hot Press – in shops now, and available to order online below: