Hey there, Nonnie. 

First of all, you know yourself and your situation better than I can ever do. So please take any advice with a pinch of salt, okay? Because this is your life, not mine.

Secondly, you have so. much. time. You’re so young. It’s fine to have confused ambitions, many ambitions, or even conflicting ones. No decision is a life sentence. We live in a world in which people re-train and begin new careers all the time. The days in which you chose your field and were stuck in it your whole life long are loooong gone. For example, my own mother-in-law was a psychologist who re-studied to become a lawyer, and ended up a professor.

My own situation was this: I finished school very young (17). I had the marks to go into law, medicine, etc, etc, and I felt pressured to do so. So I moved away from home and began a law degree that I eventually dropped due to a number of factors, lack of motivation among them. Looking back, I should have taken a few years between the end of high school and university, to learn more about the world and gain some social experience. I was taken advantage of by some very unscrupulous people (I won’t call them ‘friends’), who preyed upon my sympathy, my naivety and good intentions. I lost a LOT of money and sleep. Ah well!!!!

When I was twenty, I decided to give higher education another shot (I was understandably a bit gun-shy). I finally picked the thing I love, and began a Bachelor’s degree in Music. Upon completing it, I found that I probably should have done a combined B.Mus.Ed, rather than just the B.Mus. It’s unfortunate but true that it is incredibly difficult to support yourself as a musician in Australia. I fell into a succession of very eclectic, very soul-destroying day jobs in secretarial fields, bookkeeping and hospitality, padded out occasionally with the odd musical or production role. I found that I am not suited to desk-jobs at all. It wasn’t a good time.

I decided to go back to uni only a few years ago, and do my Diploma of Education (Secondary). It was more about me getting out of the endless cycle of shitkicking desk-jobs at the time, but it ended up being a real stroke of luck. Because finally I had found something that suited me right down to the bones. It took over a decade to get there, but I found it at last. 

Though, I don’t feel like I WASTED any of my life finding the thing that fits me, either. All those jobs gave me invaluable insights into the way the world works, the way people are, the way I am. I did great things outside the workplace, I had fantastic experiences and met wonderful people. Even though work sucked, it was all still my life, and perhaps it was all needed to build me into the person I am now. I still have skills from those years that I use today, and patience and perseverance and understandings that I would not otherwise have, and that makes me a better teacher. 

Also, I probably would never have met Mr Dets if I hadn’t run away from that first degree. 

The thing is, too, with any secondary education qualification? You end up teaching in fields that are not your ‘main’ one. I am a music teacher, that’s my subject of most expertise, but I have also taught *deep breath* drama, dance, history, English, PE, Visual Art, chemistry, geography… and the list goes on. One of the musicians who graduated with me in my Dip.Ed now teaches Manual Crafts.

If I have anything relevant to tell you that I learned from all of the above, it is this: don’t let others pressure you into changing your life for them. It’s not theirs, and there’s no ‘should!’ involved. And a double-major at 20 would have saved me nearly an entire decade of misery, white-knuckling it out in jobs that were bad for me. So there’s that, too. Also, sometimes something you’re not all that enthusiastic about turns out to be EXACTLY what was ordered. Life is weird, idk. 

*hugs* I hope that my experience helps you in your journey, Nonnie. You’re capable and you know who you are and you know your own strengths and likes and dislikes. Whatever you do, you’ll be great.