My four-year undergraduate degree is taking me at least six years — and I wouldn’t have it any other way
Millennials in Australia tend to be pretty lax about going through their undergraduate degrees. Initially I wasn’t.
When I left high school, I was accepted into a four-year visual arts course. I tried one year, but it wasn’t for me. So, I applied to transfer into another course so that I could continue my studies the next year.
That summer I flew across the world by myself to spend some time in South America. While I was there, my application to transfer courses was rejected. Enjoying the freedoms of travel, I threw caution to the wind and deferred a semester in order to work more in my job as a teacher’s aide at a high school, and to travel more.
Eventually I did go back to study, and made up the marks to transfer into a psychology course — which I loved. But another year and a half later, I went away again. When I came back, I deferred yet again, and enrolled in a short course at a vocational institution — my university degree only 75% complete.
I realise it may seem as if I don’t care at all about my degree or my future career. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
The first time I deferred, I found I had a greater passion for working with young people than I did for making art. By the second time I deferred, I realised I lacked the maturity and skill sets to do the best job I possibly could working with young people.
Every time I deferred and did something different, I felt like I matured at about ten times the rate of normal.
Had I gone through my four-year undergraduate degree straight from high school, and attempted a two years masters following the undergrad; I would have been a 23 year old professional psychologist working as an ‘expert’ with families and children. This might seem okay to some, but personally, I couldn’t be more grateful that life threw obstacles in my way and made my degree take almost double the time.
In this time, I didn’t just gain an education in university; I travelled the world, I studied in other avenues, I gained valuable work experience.
Breaking away from university, I opened my eyes to so many things I never would have seen had I stayed for all those semesters consecutively. Now when I do finally break into my field, I’ll be a more mature age, and a more mature person.
My pathway is probably far from the norm in any country, but I’ve learned that life events don’t need to be linear — and sometimes it really is best to do the opposite of what’s expected, if that’s what you need at the time.
