What plan?

As a nineteen-year-old student, the question I frequently get asked is, what's the plan after university? The dreaded question is one that I know haunts not just myself but many others in my position. The truth is, by the time you reach the end of your teenage years, you are expected to have your life mapped out. In reality, this time in my life has proven to be the most confusing. You begin to doubt all the plans you have made, some days I even doubt whether I am cut out for university. I usually respond to inquisitive plan askers with a simple answer, stating I want to teach, and this to some extent is true. After university I think I am going to complete my PGC. Some days, however, I have doubts. Am I cut out to teach? Do I want to finish university and then continue to spend the rest of my life in education?

Growing up I always wanted to be a veterinary surgeon. I love animals and would run head first towards any pet I came into contact with. My auntie had two dogs when I was young and afternoons round her house were filled with dragging them around like they were my children. My first pet was a bunny rabbit named Harvey, he was given to me on the premise that I was to give my room (the larger one in the house) to my brother. I agreed without hesitation, Harvey came home with us that weekend. I spent every evening outside in my garden with Harvey, I even got a lead for him so I could take him outside of the house and walk him around the block. My dreams soon came to an end after a work placement at a veterinary surgery, aged fifteen, resulted in me losing consciousness. I have always been squeamish but the realisation of the extent of my squeamishness is something that made me reconsider my chosen profession. Later realisations about my academic ability in the field of chemistry brought all ambitions of me getting into veterinary school to an end.

Once the vet cards were off the table, I played with various other ideas. As the Virgin Airline adverts got ever more beautiful I toyed with the idea of becoming an Air Hostess, fulfilling my dream of travelling. I do, however, have issues with my ears when flying, so that idea was a hit and miss. Then followed an extreme obsession with Criminal Minds, which has come and gone in sessions throughout my life, this resulted in me heavily researching the career of criminal psychology and working for the BAU. I am, however, British and that career is primarily an American phenomenon. I love the USA but I’m not keen on having to move there solely for work, resulting in the end of my BAU fiasco.

I have since gone through careers in the area of personal assistants, as I feel my organisation skills are on point. Becoming the next Nigella Lawson, as last summer I finally learnt how to cook. Being a movie critic, my obsession for films is almost toxic so watching them as a career would free up much of my time. And, of course, working in the education system. School has always been the one thing that I am good at, so why not?

To say I am sure about what I want to do and who I want to be will come one day, I hope. Until then, I think it is time to embrace the indecisiveness. In the words of Teddy from Stand by Me... "I'm in the prime of my youth and I'll only be young once." I have the rest of my life to figure everything out. So when all my family friends ask me what the plan is, I will reply with "what plan?" because in all honesty, I am absolutely clueless!