HARSH TRUTHS OF UNIVERSITY - why you need to learn them for yourself

What your universe looks like.

What is the circumference of the universe? How long does it take for a swarm of ants to eat a cow? All very important questions. None of which I will address in this article. I will, however, address just as important questions like 'Should I even be at university?' and 'When will I know what I want to do in life?'. The answer may not be what you want to hear.







1.  I still have no idea what real life will be like.

Any movie franchise with a plot molded around life in college suggests you will be in for a crazy sex-party-drinking-shenanigans filled experience. Universities were fantasized as being a conglomerate of fun, far away from home with your own dorm and a huge... Wait, WHAT? University isn't like this? You mean the movies were lying? After two years at University (In Australia, at least...) I wonder if someone who believed that would even be accepted into Uni. I'm still living at home, studying, not partying, not drinking- my vices are blogging and Breaking Bad (watching it- I'm not actually breaking bad)...

Note: try to keep at lest a 1/3 ratio between this place and your university.

What I'm saying is that I had no real idea what University would be like. Of course I had a general idea, but even so, it wasn't what I expected. I have an idea as to what real life will be like, and a full time job in my field, and living away from home, etc. Until I experience it first hand, I still don't really know. If the misdiagnosed preconceptions of Uni are anything to go by, then my preconceptions of real life are going to be misdiagnosed too.

2. Don't expect your degree to get you a job - expect hard work to.

Harsh truth- If you are not committed to your degree then there is a good chance you are wasting your time / money with it. On average 22 percent of 2013 university graduates were still unintentionally unemployed and looking for a job five months after graduating. 'Just scraping through' your degree and only doing the bare minimum to pass will reflect very badly when it comes to getting employed. I suspect a large amount of this 22 percent of people didn't try as absolutely hard as they could have. If you didn't want to try very hard, then that's fine. Its okay if you don't want to carry on through to the end of your degree. However- If you have the opportunity to go to university then you are a very privileged person (I am talking in a purely economical sense, I am NOT saying people who go to university are in any way better people than those who do not go to university). Don't squander that gift with 'I can't be bothered trying hard enough' excuses.

Sorry, but this is true. The sooner you realize it, the sooner you can start being something.

Don't sleep some nights, push harder than you want to, do anything you can to achieve the best results for your degree. I know its hard but it WILL be worth it. Not for the high GPA. For an outstanding portfolio of work, for an advanced understanding of your degree's teachings. That's what employers are looking for. That's how you make university worth it.

3. You wont know if university is the right choice until it is too late.

Some people won't know that their particular university degree was the wrong choice for them until it is too late. Often half way through the degree too late. Not everyone is lucky enough to find what they want to do in life on the first go. Second year was when I started to realize my degree is something I want to fully commit myself to and carry on with until completion. Still being young, I figure that I am quite naive in relation to what my future will become. Hence I elude back to point 1 of the article...

My experiences iterated within the 1st point of this article suggest my degree is going to be different to any job resultant of the degree. Working as an Industrial Designer may be nothing like what I would expect of it. I have talked to industrial designers, read the articles, watched the movies and for all I know, the only thing I will learn from these four years of education is, "I don't want to be an industrial designer"...

So why do you need to figure this all out for yourself?

Everyone is different and can't rely on other people's accounts to truly know what they want. The underlying harsh truth throughout this article is that nobody knows anything until they try it for themselves. You can research all you want. Hey, you might even find a career that is exactly what you would love to do your whole life. But remember- although things may look good on paper that doesn't mean you will like to do it in real life. The way other people perceive and describe their experiences will be completely different to the way you perceive them. This article would be considerably less significant If I was reading it before going to university as I did not know any of these 'harsh truths' beforehand.

I do not want this article to discourage you from going to university if you are 'on the fence' about it. More so, If you are lucky enough to have the opportunity of attending a university then go for it! If you don't like it then that's OK, now you know for sure.

What is your opinion on all this? Let me know in the comments section below if you agree or think I am absolutely wrong. Or just give the article a share / like on your favorite social network. Thanks!

P.S. The circumference of the universe is 456,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles (at this point in time).