hi everyone and welcome back to my channel. today I'm doing a slightly
different video which is about my experience at university and now this is
a video that I've wanted to do for a couple of years. now, I'm 24 years old I
graduated two years ago and my university experience was an important
one in shaping what I'm doing today, but certainly not in the ways that I thought
it would be. and that's really what I wanted to talk about today this is.
really just me sharing my experience, so of course it's not going to be super
structured but I'm going to do my very best. I'm gonna say one very important
thing right now at the beginning at the beginning of the video before I forget,
which is that any decision this big is a personal one: deciding whether or not to
go to university is a big decision! and I just really hope that the biggest thing
you take from this video is to really consider your own reasons for making a
decision, because you're the only one that knows the right choice... and in
reality there really is no right or wrong choice, it's doing what feels best
for you: what you think is going to make you happiest. because this is your life.
so let me jump straight into it. so let me start out this story with when I was
still at school when I was deciding whether or not I wanted to go to
university and what I wanted to study. at the school that I went to in particular
there was a real push to encourage the students to go to university so when it
came to me applying for university I didn't really see it as a question of
should I do to university but rather which university should I go to and
which subjects do I want to study. I decided to study languages: I was good at
languages, I liked languages... well I was good at French had only studied French
up to this point. I thought that this would increase my chances at getting a
job later on I basically thought it was going to give me a lot of options
further down the road and I wasn't gonna narrow myself too much too early and
box myself into only a certain career path that I could take after University.
because I still didn't really know what I wanted to do later on. I applied for
Bristol and a few other universities but really I knew from the get-go that
Bristol was my number one choice. I don't know why
I have just had this idea in my head since about the age of 14 that this
would be a good university to go t.o and straightaway there I can tell you: you
should just really question from the get-go what your motivations are for
going to university. don't do it because you think it's just the mainstream
option or the the easier option or just the thing that people do... that was what
it was for me, it was just the thing that people do and that's not a good reason
in itself. there are a lot of good reasons to go to university:
maybe it's needed for the career that you're going into or maybe you really
want a university experience or maybe you have thought about this and you
really think it will increase your chances at getting a job further in the
future. those are good reasons mine were questionable but I did end up going to
the University of Bristol I got the grades I needed. and I can say that from
pretty early on I started questioning whether I have made the right decision.
and I think everyone goes through those moments like did I really make the right
choice but if you've taken the time to really consider what your motivations
are for going those moments are going to be a lot easier. I had my first semester
at the University of Bristol and to be honest it was pretty darn miserable. I
was going through a lot of personal problems at the time like some really
heavy stuff but on top of that university is a big change you know it
was my first time living away from home I'm an only child it was my first time
living with a lot of other people around the same age as me. I did actually end up
being signed off from university because I was really unwell at one point
but by the time it came to Christmas I was just not feeling good about the
whole experience. but going home for Christmas was the first time I was
seeing a lot of my friends again my friends from home.
actually I remember we had to go into our old school to pick up some
certificates or something from our exams the previous year, so I'm seeing all of my
old classmates and like I said like 90% of us had all gone to university. so
everyone was saying "how are you finding uni? how's it going?" and everyone
was just going "yeah great you know, I love it". so I was telling everyone
it was great and how I was having a good time because I didn't want
to be the odd one out, and I didn't really want to talk about all the issues
I was having. little did I know a couple of years down the line people really
started coming out and saying that first term at uni was
really difficult, it was really hard. so even if you're not going through all the
kind of doubts of being in the right place and the personal issues it's gonna
be difficult that's completely normal. what wasn't normal was that I was really
just going through an existential crisis of "what the heck am I doing with my
life". so at this point my mom actually got me to speak to a careers coach and I
did these personality aptitude tests. I don't remember all the results exactly
but I remember after that experience thinking "okay well I want to work in
communications, I don't know exactly where, but now I feel like I have a
reason to stay at uni at least for now and see how it goes".
and it was around this time I also started my own blog and this is going to
come become important later. and just like I said it's hard to structure this
because real life isn't super structured but it was also around this time in the
Christmas break of my first year where I actually went to see the guidance
counselor at my old school and I just said "look I'm having a really tough time
at uni I don't like it I don't really know if I should stay I thinking maybe I
should drop out or change.. or, I don't know help me". she was really
helpful and I'm not denying that but one of the things she said was if you really
weren't supposed to be there doing what you're doing I think you would have
known in the first week. and that's just not true because the reality of it is
that we don't always have those like instantaneous realizations that we've
made a mistake or we're doing the wrong thing or that we're just not quite sure.
that's just not how life works so definitely don't think that you have to
have a hugely strong gut feeling pulling you one way or the other to make a
decision. so I did stick out the rest of my first year at uni and I'll admit it
got a little bit better the first term was definitely the hardest. but I was
still really struggling and just felt like I had a lack of direction wasn't
sure what I was doing. I didn't really make that many friends
in my first year I made a few but not really I don't know I think that I took
it is for granted that I would go to uni and I would make
new friends. I had moved schools before when I was younger and I'd
eventually worked it out and found a good group of friends but it just
didn't happen for me straight away. I really kind of just withdrew into myself
and became very introverted and that was my way of dealing with all of the
personal problems I was having and all of the big life changes that had been
happening. that year my first summer after uni I got a couple of internships.
I was really intent on just trying my hand of what it would be like to work
in communication so I've got a PR internship and I did a week of work
experience with an internal communications team of a corporate
company and I really enjoyed working and it just made me think "I just really
don't enjoy studying I kind of wish I was just working and could get started
with my life already". but I did go back for my second year of University and
things got a bit better but I was just never one of those people that said
university life was amazing I love the university lifestyle. I'll admit that
in my second year I started to get close to a group of people who were on my
course and I am still in contact with some of them today second year. I guess
it was better but I still always had these doubts of like what am i doing.
I got super into blogging this year and I made a lot of friends through blogging
and to be honest most of my socializing was going to like networking events
around the city of Bristol because there were loads of creative freelancers there.
I think I didn't really realize at the time but I was really lucky to have
those events going on. another big part of my second year of university was
planning my year abroad. at my university we actually had a four year course
whereas most undergrad university courses in the UK
are just three years. and the reason for that was because in our third year we
would all go abroad to the country of the language that we were studying and
either study there or do an internship there. so seeing as I had enjoyed my time
in my internship so much I decided that I would really like to
actually just go and do an internship and just have a year away from studying
because I just didn't like studying. I'd been so good at school when
it was so structured, the way you took exams... and really it was just
learning how to pass the exams. I really enjoyed learning languages but I think
that what I really loved about learning languages was communicating
with the people and being in the place. when he got into the nitty-gritty of the
grammar, and a lot of the literature and modules and things I was studying
just want things that super interested me. and that's another tip is: don't think
about what you should be studying for the career you want to take unless you
want to be like a doctor in which case you don't have much choice. and really
study something that you enjoy. if you love literature and you want to study
literature then that's a great motivation to do it. yeah... wasn't super
inspired to be spending my whole day studying so I thought for my third year
I would take a break from that and go and do some internships and work. I
organised to spend the first half in Paris practicing my French and I
organized an internship with a corporate media relations company and then I would
spend the second half of the year abroad in Italy. this is Emily from the future
at this point I go into a long explanation about my Erasmus year abroad
and its really worth going into detail on, but it made the video way too long, so
what I've done is I've split them into two. so if you want to watch the video
about my Erasmus experience I'm going to link it somewhere here in the
description as soon as it's live I'm not sure whether I'm going to put this one
live or that one first but it'll be up very soon if it's not yet, so go check
it out. but for now I'm going to continue with my university experience story from
my final year after my year abroad is over. but the third year had to come to
an end and I can say that that was mildly traumatic for me and I'm not
exaggerating. I was so upset to have to go back to the UK and when I did arrive
back to the UK after being away for a year I really felt that kind of
disconnect culturally from from where I was after having fallen in love with
Italian culture and the way things work in mainland
Europe. so I came back from my final year of university which I knew was going to
be intense and stressful and I just had bad memories associated with being at
uni by this point. but I really wanted to give it my best shot so I said you know
I'm gonna treat this year like an Erasmus year: like a year abroad
and just rediscover the place I'm from or the place I'm studying. I tried to
do that but very soon it all got a bit much I was also trying to start to do
some kind of freelancing but that alongside trying to enjoy life and just
give myself time for myself, but also studying and you know being in your
final year of university: especially the first term where they try to cram so
much in. I burnt out and I got pretty ill... I had some mental health
issues which is a recurring theme throughout my whole university
experience, but it just became very heavy and difficult again very quickly. and
I was kind of miserable. but all through this time I was kind of thinking, you
know what when this is over I'm gonna go to Italy and I'm gonna start my
freelance business. so this thought kind of kept me going, but I'll admit there
was a point I think around December of my final year back at university where I
was really once again strongly considering dropping out. because at this
point I knew that a university degree was unlikely to make
the difference between me getting freelance contracts and not. and that's
something I can never be sure of, but I knew that the kind of thing I wanted to
do was going to be much more portfolio-based and wasn't going to directly be
using my language skills necessarily. but I stuck it out I guess after that first
term things got a little bit easier, but it still felt very heavy. long story
short I did finish University and I finished with good marks. I got a
2:1 which is like the second highest category of grade that you can get. so I
did well. I'm proud of myself for finishing and towards the end it was
really a case of just proving to myself that I could stick something out, even
when it was so difficult on so many levels.
so yes I'm proud of myself finishing I'm glad I finished it in that sense but
also there's a little bit of me that kind of wishes I'd had the balls to
just go out there without my degree without this piece of paper and to start
my freelance career which is essentially the path that I did set out on. but this
raises two very big questions: did my degree help me in doing what I do today?
what advice would I give to somebody in the position that I was in however many
years ago when I was deciding whether or not to go to universityi? my degree helped me. I
think that it's impossible to do something for four years and not learn
something or take something away from it that's going to help you later in life.
was it the best decision that was the most efficient at getting me on the road
I'm on today? probably not but I will never know how things would be different
had I not taken that path. which then brings up the question " what
advice would I give to somebody who's a where I was five or six years ago when
they're deciding about University or just started and not feeling great about
it?" and it really comes down to this once again: which is just have your
motivations set out from the beginning. why do you want to go to university?
because the truth is I think people are recognizing this more now is that the
way the world is going, university is not the only option and it's not the only
option if you want a successful life. what does that even mean?! only
you can't say that and that's the question you've got to ask yourself. and
you don't have to know the answer like that it's so okay to take a year out to
just work even if it's working in a bar or or waitressing, that's what most
people do if they if they take a year out. because then you can save up some
money which then maybe you'll decide you want to use that to help you to do your
degree at university, or maybe that's going to end up being money to help you
kickstart whatever kind of lifestyle you're going to start for yourself and
if you need more than a year. that's also okay. I don't know it's tough, I know
thatmoney is really tough for some people... but I promise you
if you really want something just work out what that is
and do everything in your power to make it happen and that's what
I did. I did move to Italy straight after University and I taught English
for a few months while I started to try to find my first freelancing clients and
I ended up getting a regular freelancing gig at a social media agency. I was
working with them for about eight or nine months before I decided to head out
on my own to just do more projects, work less with the agency and have time
to manage other projects which is the road I'm on now. I have kind of focused
in a bit more from just general social media management to more specifically
video content creation and strategy: so helping people to create videos for
their social media and come up with a strategy surrounding that. the truth is
that that is very much in line with the kind of things I was hoping to be doing
when I started really getting down to it in my last couple of years of university. I
think that's all the knowledge and wisdom I have to share with you today
and more than anything it's just my story there are no right answers. there
are no real conclusions there are just the the kinds of questions you should be
asking yourself, so please don't don't stress yourself too much over this. it's
an important decision but even if you take the "wrong decision" there's
there's a way around it and you're gonna work it out and you're gonna get to
where you're supposed to be. I know it's the time of year now where people are
going to be getting exam results to find out whether they got into university orare just
deciding whether they're gonna want to even apply to university. so I really hope that
this has helped someone. good luck everyone with whatever kind of decision
you're making at the moment and whatever the outcome is I'm sure you're gonna do
fantastically and everything you need to know is in here so trust yourself, you're
gonna be okay. thanks for watching this video all the way till the end and I
will see you in my next one. and do subscribe if you want to see some more
of my videos my lifestyle and what I'm doing now sounds interesting to you I'm
actually not living in Italy anymore, I moved to Brussels, so subscribe if you kept up to
date with that. bye!
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