CHOOSE LIFE
Graduating From My Media Communications Degree
Words: MJB
Amidst the chaos and confusion of the pandemic, I decided to spend the last 2 years completing my Masters of Marketing whilst working full-time in Marketing and running my resell business on the side.
When I tell people, I’m met with praise, but I’d love to share some cautionary tales because it’s important to be transparent.
★ BURNOUT ★
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Working FT, studying and running a business was too much. As humans, we need mental and emotional rest. Burnout isn’t cute and it’s really lonely (especially through a pandemic).
If you see the signs approaching, please take a break, request an extension, ask for help. Sometimes it’s hard to stop even when the red flags raise because winning is addictive, especially when you’ve spent your whole life “failing”. I can tell you this: the diminishing returns of falling into the fire are not worth it. Be kind to yourself.
★ HELP ★
Ask for it/demand it/if you see someone who might need it - extend it. I was school captain in primary school, but by high school I was a “deadbeat”. Not fitting into the rigid laws of academia meant getting in trouble (detention, suspension, expulsion) and the alt route of pursuing creative subjects meant no hope for higher education/careers that “paid well”.
Sadly, so much of my higher education journey has been motivated by vengeance to prove to someone else that I was smart/worthy enough for the institutions and the corporate world. In my final semester, I took the leap and got my formal diagnosis for ADHD after decades of struggling. Testing and learning with different meds whilst under immense pressure is really hard. It’s hard to accept. It’s hard to explain. It’s hard to share. But getting help got me over the line and made things so much easier.
I often wonder if my entire academic/professional life would have been different if neurodivergence and mental health challenges hadn’t been frowned upon. IDK.
★ CHOOSE LIFE ★
School (in its current form) is not for everyone. Really ask yourself if it is for you before leaping into it - it’s your choice. I’ve personally learned more on the job/online than I’ve ever learned in a classroom.
I’m not mad about having this piece of paper I can point to when someone tells me I’m not competent because I got that qualification for them. I’m just happy to have my intellectual confidence and audacity back because all I ever wanted was to know that I could do it.
If this sounds like you, then, please...
Don’t follow in my footsteps.
Don’t listen.
Don’t fall in line.
Keep doing things your way, because nobody knows your full potential but you. The world will catch up eventually.
In the amended words of Irvine Welsh…
“Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got… happiness?”
