Too much pressure to go to University too soon?

That's right, that point of revision boredom has come where I throw the paper on the floor, lose my pen inside my bed somewhere and grab my laptop to add to my new 'serious' blog. Well it really isn't that new anymore I just only have one piece or writing on it and that simply isn't enough.

I've recently decided that a gap year is in order. I can't pay to do the dance course I got on for September so I'll be spending next year putting clothes on rails in a poorly paid student job. Or carrying food from an angry chef to an ungratelful customer in a resteraunt. Who knows, in true Josie fashion I haven't started looking for a job for next year yet I'm just assuming one will turn up. One thing I'm sure of though is that my year of being a lazy 'between A levels and degree' teenage, still holding onto Mummy and Daddy's wallet is alot more appealing than throwing myself into university next year.

The majority of my friends are all spreading their half grown wings and tottering to the edge of their nests to throw themselves of the side circa September 2010. Alot of them will catch the wind of educational success and glide to safely, walk out with their degrees in three years and land reasonably well paid jobs. But there'll always be those that realise they weren't ready to make that leap yet, that realise they should've stayed up in theirs next being fed worms and snuggling up in a familiar bed. But it's too late, they've jumped and their falling fast. Failing with their wrong decision and crashing onto the floor helpless and alone to be picked apart by the scavengers down below.
What I want to know is what you do if you're one of those unlucky few that have misjudged what they want? Nine percent of all students embarking on higher education in 2006 had dropped out by 2008. That's 9 of every 100 students that almost put themselves £30,000 in debt for something that wasn't even right for them .

The fact of the matter is that students these days are under more pressure than ever to go to university to get a degree level qualification. Which is of course a great thing to have, but what if that isn't for you? We're all put encouraged to complete UCAS during our final year of A levels, but as a eighteen year old, I know that not all of us know what we want from life yet. Also, the pressure is on to go as soon as we're finished with college and if we've half heatedly applied for a course we think that maybe would suit us and we've gotten offers, it's tempting to accept them and go to study something we don't really want to somewhere we don't really want to go. And that's when students drop out and realise they hadn't wasted precious gap year time being miserable in some dirty student halls typing out reams of dull essays wondering why they miss home so much.

If we were taught the benefits of gap years, taught how during a gap year you can earn some much needed cash for when you find the university course that's right for you, or that if you take a gap year you can travel and see some truly fascinating places and learn more about yourself, then maybe none of us would ever go to university. But what I'm hoping happens for me is that I'll be able to travel abit, earn some cash and sort out in my mind whether I can choose between dance and writing. The benefits will be endless and I'm going to make sure I get the most out of my year. The rest of you who are heading off to univerisity, hopefully your choice will have been the right one and you all have the time of your lives, but if you find you've made a mistake there are always other options.

Now I'm going to get back to passing my A levels, or just reading The World According To Clarkson. Who knows. Maybe I'll just take a gap couple of months actually that sounds nice...

Fiction.

I didn't expect my first post on here to be fiction, especially seeing as writing fiction usually makes me cringe a little. I don't know why, I think because it's so personal somehow. But anyway, I haven't written any in a while so excuse the poor standard.

She gazed up at that romantic sky above her, the perfect golden sunset that framed her world of perfect solitude. She was completely alone on the moor except for the sheep and cows that wandered free, swishing their tails to deter the evening flies. Her chestnut horse strolled obediently beneath her as she contemplated the contentment of her life at that exact moment. Nothing could bring her down when she was alone on the moors, not even the frantic bustle of college could affect her.

Horse and rider turned a corner to walk along the bottom of a hill. Carefully her horse picked its way between granite rocks that jutted out, half emerged from the rugged Cornish moorland grass as well as skillfully avoiding avoiding patches of wet bog which had sharp reeds sticking up warningly from the peat. She dropped her feet out of the stirrups, trusting her steeds calm temperament and swung her legs casually as she smiled at the setting sun. She knew that she was entirely and unquestionably happy only when she was on horseback. No other place in the world or moment in time could bring such complete relaxation and that almost overwhelming happiness that a hack out onto the moors on a perfect evening brings. It brings that kind of happiness that beams out through your smile and radiates from your eyes. The type of happiness that fills you up from head to toe and makes you dizzy with the wish that you never want to be anywhere else doing anything else.

I'd quite like to go horse riding.
Thanks for reading.

SugarLoris's evolution.

Hello,
My name's Josie Brinkman, I'm 18 years old, I listen to too much bad music and I love blogging. This is in fact my second blog, I can also be found as SugarLoris on this very same and very lovely website, but I realised it was time I made a new blog, a more serious blog with serious posts and more serious, yet probably poor attempts at writing.

That's enough repetition for one day.

For anyone reading this before SugarLoris. I can basically be summed up as an 18 year old English girl whose torn between dance and writing but wants to give her best shot at both until she chooses between them.

http://sugarloris.blogspot.com/