The smell of freshly ground coffee wafts through the morning air as I sit on the veranda looking listening to Frank Ocean. Sweet, sweet life - is it not? Agreed, at the beginning of summer holidays I'm somewhat of a pessimist as I see the blank calender endlessly stretch out, but a blink later and I find myself two weeks' away from re-starting sixth form. I'm going to be in upper-sixth, which despite being one of the 'top dogs' of school, also means that it'll be my last year at the establishment. Time flies like an arrow (...and fruit flies like a banana).
The Uni Prospectuses currently cover the living room floor and Mother keeps complaining how messy it looks. They're flooding in at the moment, and it amuses me to wonder what the postman must think they are as he stuffs four more packages into the tiny slit of our letterbox. Maybe this is what Harry Potter felt like in the Philosopher's Stone when he got hundreds of letters from Hogwarts... or not. Anyway, the majority of the summer has been spent highlighting and comparing each of the courses. The marketing departments have all done such a great job in promoting their unis that I've ended up very confused and wanting to apply to all of them. It's such a joke that 17/18 year olds have to choose a career path at this age. I can't decide what type of cereal to have in the mornings, let alone what I'm going to spend the majority of my adult life doing. Some courses, such as the Liberal Arts and Sciences course at Birmingham, enables students to basically 'pick n mix' their own degree courses. Whether one would want to do a bit of Maths alongside History of Art - whatever, you could do it. I thought that I had finally chosen my course until I saw the Entry Requirements of A*AA *cue for audience laughter*.
I mean, one doesn't /have/ to go to University. It's just the general route everyone goes down because it's what expected. As Felix Dennis says, 'keep to the track, to the beaten track'. But, but what about 'YOLO'? Okay, hear me out and don't think I'm going to go all Drake on y'all. Think of the concept of 'YOLO': You Only Live Once. Personally, I think that the term may be tarnished from young teens' misuse of the phrase. It doesn't justify doing immoral or illegal things, it just means that that you should do things that make you happy and not live in regret for not doing them (then again, if doing immoral and illegal things make you happy.....well, that's for another post). Let me give you an example. The majority of people have 'go skydiving' on their buckletlist. Why? Just like I wrote about here, it is one of those so-called 'sports' which give you a rush of adrenaline. However, when you ask Joe Bloggs in the street if he's ever fulfilled his dream, he'd probably say no. Why? Because he doesn't YOLO. He goes to his 9 to 5 job that'll keep his bills paid, but when he has free time, he sits at home watching Youtube videos of other people skydiving. Go out there, Joe Bloggs; save up and go fulfil your dream of throwing yourself out a moving plane 12,500 feet off the ground.
My friend Harrison* and I used to muse with the idea of truly 'YOLOING' our lives. He had this crazy idea, this crazy, crazy idea, of not going to Uni and just moving out to America, living on a farm, and livin' off of the fatta the lan'.. Living like a hermit, I suppose; being split off from the world and just being content in one's own little world. I mean, why go off to University just to write down on your CV that you have a degree in X? Isn't ignorance bliss? Obviously, when Harrison presented me with this idea I turned into a Geraldine's character from the Beautiful and Damned and replied "Cra-azy". He must have undoubtedly felt like an intellectual among a spoilt and callow youth. After all, he once wrote me a 1,500 word essay (or seemingly so) about a mule. Yeah, you read it right (luv u rly bby). In all seriousness, it was very interesting, and he made the analogy of how that mule didn't know about climate change nor about 9/11, nor any world problems for that matter. It would just go about its day, hell, its /life/, not knowing all those draining issues - but it would still be happy. Maybe we should all be like mules.
Anyway, my coffee appears to have brewed. After I pour it out, I'll no doubt go back to meticulously reviewing university prospectuses.
The Uni Prospectuses currently cover the living room floor and Mother keeps complaining how messy it looks. They're flooding in at the moment, and it amuses me to wonder what the postman must think they are as he stuffs four more packages into the tiny slit of our letterbox. Maybe this is what Harry Potter felt like in the Philosopher's Stone when he got hundreds of letters from Hogwarts... or not. Anyway, the majority of the summer has been spent highlighting and comparing each of the courses. The marketing departments have all done such a great job in promoting their unis that I've ended up very confused and wanting to apply to all of them. It's such a joke that 17/18 year olds have to choose a career path at this age. I can't decide what type of cereal to have in the mornings, let alone what I'm going to spend the majority of my adult life doing. Some courses, such as the Liberal Arts and Sciences course at Birmingham, enables students to basically 'pick n mix' their own degree courses. Whether one would want to do a bit of Maths alongside History of Art - whatever, you could do it. I thought that I had finally chosen my course until I saw the Entry Requirements of A*AA *cue for audience laughter*.
I mean, one doesn't /have/ to go to University. It's just the general route everyone goes down because it's what expected. As Felix Dennis says, 'keep to the track, to the beaten track'. But, but what about 'YOLO'? Okay, hear me out and don't think I'm going to go all Drake on y'all. Think of the concept of 'YOLO': You Only Live Once. Personally, I think that the term may be tarnished from young teens' misuse of the phrase. It doesn't justify doing immoral or illegal things, it just means that that you should do things that make you happy and not live in regret for not doing them (then again, if doing immoral and illegal things make you happy.....well, that's for another post). Let me give you an example. The majority of people have 'go skydiving' on their buckletlist. Why? Just like I wrote about here, it is one of those so-called 'sports' which give you a rush of adrenaline. However, when you ask Joe Bloggs in the street if he's ever fulfilled his dream, he'd probably say no. Why? Because he doesn't YOLO. He goes to his 9 to 5 job that'll keep his bills paid, but when he has free time, he sits at home watching Youtube videos of other people skydiving. Go out there, Joe Bloggs; save up and go fulfil your dream of throwing yourself out a moving plane 12,500 feet off the ground.
My friend Harrison* and I used to muse with the idea of truly 'YOLOING' our lives. He had this crazy idea, this crazy, crazy idea, of not going to Uni and just moving out to America, living on a farm, and livin' off of the fatta the lan'.. Living like a hermit, I suppose; being split off from the world and just being content in one's own little world. I mean, why go off to University just to write down on your CV that you have a degree in X? Isn't ignorance bliss? Obviously, when Harrison presented me with this idea I turned into a Geraldine's character from the Beautiful and Damned and replied "Cra-azy". He must have undoubtedly felt like an intellectual among a spoilt and callow youth. After all, he once wrote me a 1,500 word essay (or seemingly so) about a mule. Yeah, you read it right (luv u rly bby). In all seriousness, it was very interesting, and he made the analogy of how that mule didn't know about climate change nor about 9/11, nor any world problems for that matter. It would just go about its day, hell, its /life/, not knowing all those draining issues - but it would still be happy. Maybe we should all be like mules.
Anyway, my coffee appears to have brewed. After I pour it out, I'll no doubt go back to meticulously reviewing university prospectuses.
0 comments:
Post a Comment