As I am about to embark on my next life "adventure", I thought it'd be a good time to reflect on my previous life experiences. Around this time last year I was in my final year of high school, anxiously awaiting to commence my first set of HSC trial examinations. If you're not familiar with the Australian education system - and more specifically the NSW system - basically Year 12 students undertake a set of examinations (2 major exam blocks) that determine the university you are accepted into, as well as the course.
I was extremely fortunate to have a pretty great high school experience. I left my all-girl's private school at the end of Year 10 and moved to a co-ed Catholic private high school to complete the final two years of my schooling life. It was the greatest decision I made as I thrived in all of my subjects, and had a really great group of friends who were my greatest support systems in that extremely stressful final year.
Many of you wouldn't be aware of this but I am quite a goal driven person. I love setting goals whether it be in my personal life and in my job, but more specific to this blog post my education. At the end of Year 11 I made a list of all the things I wanted to achieve. These consisted of getting an ATAR of 80 or above, attending my desired university (Macquarie) and receiving entry into a Bachelor of Commerce course with a major in marketing. This time last year these were the driving motivators of my life, I literally thought I had it all figured out. I put so much pressure on myself to achieve these goals because I was under this misconception that if I didn't get into Macquarie Uni and in that specific course then I would be absolutely done for and there was no way I'd ever be working in the PR or Marketing field.
Year 12 was overall an "extremely stressful" time in my life. I put that in quotations because I was extremely naive in thinking that could be the absolute peak of stress in life. I believed that as soon as I finished my HSC exams and received my marks that life from then on would be absolutely amazing (which it has been) and I'd never have to experience such high-levels of anxiety again. When I spoke these misconceptions out loud my boyfriend, older friends and family members would just scoff and tell me that I had an "absolute storm ahead of me".
Andddddd they were right.
It was from the moment I turned 18, started uni, began to work 4+ days a week, struggled to see my friends let alone my boyfriend, that I realised how easy I had it back then. Seriously, if you are in Year 11 or 12 right now count your blessings because stressing over exams that honestly do not depict your future success is absolutely outrageous. It means everything in that moment of time, but in the long-stretch, it means nothing.
Don't get me wrong it is extremely important to try your best and set goals for your HSC, but it is not worth the anxiety, tears, missed meals, or the neglect of your social life. I went from weighing 54kgs to 49kgs in the space of 6 months, it seriously is not worth that.
The whole point of this post though was to reflect on how much life can change once you do finish high school. Whilst you do have a lot more adult responsibilities such as earning your own money, paying for your own education expenses, deciding what in the world you actually want to do in life, there is some really amazing benefits. Comparing myself now to last year I have become so much more independent and mature. Although my parents pay for my car and provide a roof over my head, I pay for all the extra things in my life, like clothes, meals, petrol, etc. and I bloody love it. Not having to ask your parents for money is seriously the greatest thing in the world.
Another amazing element of leaving school is the freedom. My personal experience revolves around university. Like I said before, I was pretty adamant on what exactly I wanted to do in life, consisting of going to university and doing commerce. I was so overly excited that I was accepted into my course and thought I was going to absolutely love it, but I didn't, I just loved the fact that I had classes 1 day a week and was able to work and make money every other day. Quickly I began to feel really un-motivated and un-inspired at uni. I thought I was going to thrive in it academically because I'd find it interesting and relevant to what I wanted to do, but that wasn't the case.
I stuck it out until the end of Semester 1 and after my exams I started to re-assess my current situation. I was extremely unhappy and unmotivated, something that I wasn't used to after the completion of school. Uni is great in the aspect that there's so much freedom to do your own thing, so I was able to un-enrol for the year and really consider what exactly I wanted to do with my life. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the course I was doing I just wasn't in the right mindset to really put my head down and get on with it.
During this time of reflecting on what I wanted to do I met up with a friend of mine who was finishing up her Diploma of Business at The Fashion Institute, and she said she really loved it. That night I came home and did some research on the fashion business schools of Sydney and started e-mailing around to get some information and organise interviews to see if that was something I could possibly do on my year off. Last week I finally made the decision to enrol in fashion college at The Fashion Institute in Chippendale and I start tomorrow, and I am SO excited.
Fashion has been an industry I've wanted to belong to for over a decade now, and if you've followed me for a while then you would know this. I am feeling so inspired to really make the most of this year off of uni and really gain some knowledge from professionals in the industry to make a name for myself in the future. I am so excited for the future and to see what the college has in store for me. This post is definitely going to be one of many as I reflect upon my future endeavours, as it was really hard for me to find other girls/boys that were going through a similar quarter-life crisis as me.
Whether it be taking a year off to travel or work, or begin a whole different chapter of your life, know that everything happens for a reason. This time last year I was filled with so much anxiety about the future and how well I was going to do in my final school exams that I forgot to really enjoy myself and make the most of how easy life was. If you are about to finish school and un-sure about what the future holds for you or if you're also stuck in a similar situation and not sure if you want to complete your uni course right away, know that you are not alone, and that uni will always be there to begin or complete.
Having goals is great, I think it's incredibly important to have them to keep yourself motivated and inspired. But it's important to understand that our short-term goals aren't always long-term goals, and that happiness, inspiration and feeling content is extremely important. Taking some time to reflect on your current situation and make alterations to your life can really set you up for the future.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would un-enrol from my "dream course" and enrol in fashion school yet here I am.
I am so excited to start my first day of my business diploma tomorrow and I hope that you can really take something from this post. I love writing and it feels really good to get how I feel and how I've felt down on one page. I think this might be a recurring theme of my blog, reflecting and talking about my feelings and experiences.
If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me or tweet me, I will leave my social media handles below.
Happy Monday and enjoy the week ahead of you.
Maddy x
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Contact Me:
E-mail: maddy.chippendale@gmail.com
Snapchat: maddychipp
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