Alex's Bit of Everything

  This post is more of a diary entry than anything else – I wanted to talk through what my experience has been post-graduation and leaving education. To state the obvious, it’s a bit of a shock to the system. After sitting in various classrooms over the last 16 years of my life, now that I’ve graduated the first thing that I’m confronted with is a simple question that I kept pushing off because it was too scary: what do I do now ? The schedule of a timetable is gone and I’m endlessly applying for jobs, some that I’d be happy to do and others that I’d rather not. The constant rejections and the lack of responses are demoralising – especially after all the effort that I put in over education to get the best results possible. I keep trying to not let myself be bothered by it, but every eagerly anticipated email ending in a “we have decided not to proceed with your application” gnaws away at you. Of course, I’m in a very privileged position in that I can stay at home while I search...

  I remember that old journey well. It was the summer holidays for Catie, and I was supposed to be starting school soon – we were headed on a short family trip away. Dad got a puncture on the motorway. He had to change out the tire on the side of the road as the cars whizzed past. He probably didn’t fit it properly – that must have been what caused the crash. I had started to think I was delusional after waiting for hours, the relentless assault of wind and rain a cruel test. I’d finally made it to that same road but was no closer to speaking with them. I was a wreck. The kind stranger had settled back into his car, children in the back peering through the back window as he indicated and set off. That was when it finally arrived. With a flat tire, it rolled up behind me, the headlights flickering in rain and inky blackness. I staggered over to the driver’s door, hands shaking, glad to finally bring everything to an end. Dad opened the door and pulled me into a loving hug. His...