Nice different unusual

I distinctly remember my final day at university. Three long years of studying a Bachelor of Journalism were over, and after celebrating with classmates and teachers, I sat at university’s ferry terminal, waiting to go home when I bumped into two of my lecturers. We idly chatted for a while, until one of them asked my plans after graduation. I wasn’t sure of much, except one thing: I wasn’t returning to university if I could help it.

In context, I think my position at the time makes sense. Aside from being young and full of opinions that come with that age, I had gone straight from secondary school into tertiary education, and it wasn’t so much university that I wanted to move on from, but education in general. At 21 years old, like many recent graduates, I’d spent roughly three quarters of my life in full-time education, and it was time to try something different.

Over time, it became clear that I wasn’t alone among my classmates. Most chose not to continue education into the post-graduate level, and those that did return typically undertook a course in a separate discipline to secure a job outside journalism, communications or marketing. One became a lawyer, another a nurse, a third a hotelier.

Given what we now know about people’s careers, that they will have several over their lifetime, as well as the propensity, especially among those younger, to move between jobs every two years or so, I also think my desire to try something new shouldn’t come as a surprise. Sometimes it’s right to move on and try something new.

I deeply appreciate the irony of discussing my last day at university in the introduction of an issue dedicated to students’ first day on campus. Part of the reason, I think, is because I recently went against my decision not to return to university and started a business course remotely with a UK institution. The memories came flooding back.