Full time work is dragging a bit already. I was one of those arrogant kids who never believed that stuff grown ups would tell you about school being the best days of your life and so on, but now I'm in full time work, I wish I was back at school. Things were easier. You could get away with murder and just get a slap on the wrist. Being late, pissing around in lessons... the most that generally happened, (unless you actually did something completely ridiculous like shit on a teacher's desk), was a teacher might have a word with you and tell you to calm it down. You mess around or are late to work, you've got a manager on your case and risk losing your job.
There was the social aspect as well. I wasn't a popular kid at school, I didn't have loads of friends, but the few I did have I could see everyday. We went out clubbing each Thursday, would get horribly drunk, wake up Friday morning with a terrible hangover and still make it into school for 8.30. And everyone would do it. But now, now we all have jobs and have to be at work for 9.30 or something, and we just won't go out in case we're too hungover for work, or we're late... it's an entirely new system, and it's bizarre. At work, I'm not a sociable person. I find it hard making friends, and whilst I now have a few people that I'll see away from work, it's taken some time for me to reach this stage, and it's simply because everyone is at Uni or has their own job to go to. Most of the friends I made at school were through other people, friends of friends became true friends, and so it went on.
I think this comes down to me being different in the long run. I think what's stopping me from talking to people at work is that I'm concerned about their prejudices. I don't have any sort of accent, Kidderminster or otherwise, and so apparently this makes me posh. I don't wanna start talking to somebody at work and have them instantly thinking I'm some uptight snobby posh boy, cos I'm not. It's something I've faced abuse for all my life and it gets so old. It doesn't wind me up or annoy me particularly, it's just cliche and dull.
Despite feeling nostalgic about my school days, I'm aware I still have Uni ahead of me... which should be a return to social life as I knew it before, mixed with some work. But is it worth it? Taking a gap year is like seeing the future, entering full time work, making your own way in the world... and just thinking, "Is this what the rest of my life will be like?". While I'm aware that my current job is COMPLETELY different to what I hope to do in the future as a graphic designer, it's the same routine. Get up, go to work, get home, sleep. Limited social life. Looking at my parents, are they content with their jobs? No. That said, I don't believe either of them are doing what they wanted to do, whereas design is something I REALLY want to do. But is it worth sacrificing all the social life, the messing around, the FUN just for a career and money? I wonder. I'm dead set on going to Uni though, just so I can attempt to relive those glory years at school that were a large part of my life, and shaped and formed me into the person I am today. I hope it offers me a new perspective.
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