Why starting university 2 years late was the best decision of my life.
- Lola Fitzgerald
- Jun 24, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Oct 25, 2020
Having to explain that I’m 21 but only a First Year always caused a few confused facial expressions and curious questions. I must say, it certainly is strange watching most people my age and those who were previously in my year group at school come to the end of their university experience and begin to graduate while being flung into the big, real word of employment and real life responsibility. It almost makes me feel guilty as I get to sit back with a low work level, take exams that don’t even count towards my degree and live comfortably in a constant cycle of being either drunk or hungover.
However, within our highly interconnected and digital world, it is easy to become overwhelmed by posts and images of people living their ‘best lives’ and achieving amazing things at a young age. It is easy to become wrapped up in the idea of comparing yourself to other’s successes, leading you to question your own worth and whether you have achieved enough by your age. Despite this, going to university two years later than the average student was truly the best decision of my life.
Let me begin with a brief back story. Throughout Year 7 to Year 11 I was extremely shy and lacked a lot of confidence. I didn’t have the correct friends surrounding me for my personality and self to blossom and grow in the way that I wanted it to. When I entered Sixth Form, I switched friendship groups and began to surround myself with people who inspired me to become a happier and friendlier person, which in turn allowed my confidence to grow.
However, Sixth Form was just the beginning of my confidence journey. I had developed a lot but certainly wasn’t ready nor had enough self-belief to move miles away and start a new life, with new people in a new city. AND THAT’S OKAY! Everyone is own their own journey at their own pace. After speaking to friends who went straight to university after Sixth Form many of them admitted that they were not ready for university at all. The demanding societal expectations of going to university at the age of 18 is ridiculous, and for anyone who needs to hear it right now – take your time!
To add to this, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life and I didn’t really know who I was as a person. I had a huge passion for art but I had no clue what career path within art I wanted to delve into. All I knew was that I loved Surrealism and all things weird.
Therefore, after Sixth Form I went to study a 1-year Art Foundation course at a nearby University rather than attempting to apply for a 3-year undergraduate course, so I could experiment with different avenues of the Art industry. I must also add that it is extremely difficult to get into a 3 year undergraduate Art course without an Art Foundation diploma behind you, as the way you study Art throughout A Levels is very limiting and structured and therefore doesn’t correctly prepare you to study Art at an undergraduate level.
Art Foundations were free at the time for under 19’s, however due to Brexit they no longer are. My Art Foundation was an extremely challenging year. I thought this course was going to be my saving grace and would turn on that little light bulb in my head which showed me what to do with the rest of my life – however, it didn’t.
I spent the first few months of the course exploring different paths within the art industry, ranging from Film, Fashion and Textiles, 3D and Visual Communications. I then decided to specialise in Film, however I wasn’t sure whether it was the right decision. The last few weeks leading up the Christmas break were horrific, I felt extremely alone and confused as to where this course was taking me and started to doubt myself. I felt as though I was wasting my time. I began to despise the one thing I had always been passionate about. I had lost my sense of self, all type of motivation and became very anxious about my future. Throughout the remainder of my Art Foundation I continued to feel this way. I watched the students around me find their passion and apply to university, while I still had no clue what I was doing. It was a very scary period of my life. I never really gave up with my course – I stand by the fact that I have a good work ethic and quite frankly care too much about my education to throw it all away.
As the course continued, my Film tutor suddenly became very ill and could no longer teach at the University, therefore all Film students were placed within Visual Communications. The university wasn’t sure how to deal with this, so they began to set Film students the same work as Visual Communications students. In frank, this didn’t work at all as the project briefs simply weren’t practical for Film students to create work from. This led to a lot of frustration, creative block and even more self-doubt.
However, it is not all doom and gloom! I decided to put my head down and completed the course with a Merit – which I was extremely proud of, seeing as how difficult I had found the course. And thank God I had put the work in. Little did I know at the time; my Merit would later open amazing opportunities and get me into my dream university!
As I hadn’t applied to university at this point, I found myself on a GAP year - this was definitely the hardest year of my life mental health wise. As I suddenly had a lot of free time, I stepped up at my weekend retail job to a Supervisor. It was a lot of responsibility and very stressful as the company was horrifically unorganised and unprofessional, but it kept me busy. In my spare time I began to research into university courses which appealed to me. I knew I definitely didn’t want to go into Art but still wanted to remain in the creative sphere. I wanted something that was theoretical but as far away from Maths and Science as possible. I was set at studying Events Management for a while, but it just didn’t feel right. As I continued my research I stumbled across the course which had literally been made for me; Media and Communications. Now, with a Media and Communications degree you can either find universities that teach it on a practical or theoretical level. As my Art Foundation had been extremely practical, this time I wanted to study with a theoretical approach.
My top 3 choices were the University of Nottingham, Cardiff and Sussex. I had just missed the entry required grades for these Universities by one grade, however my Merit from my Art Foundation meant I had more than double to amount of UCAS points asked by each university. I enquired with each university as to whether they would consider accepting me and each university replied with an unconditional offer. I had never been so happy in my life. This gave me the freedom and opportunity to attend which ever university I pleased.
My mindset shifted and I was focused on completing my GAP year and starting my next journey. I quit my job, which had been treating me awfully and started a new Supervisor job for a new company. By summer working over 50 hours a week and lots of 12-hour shifts, which made my mental health suffer a lot, as work had become my entire life but it was still dramatically better than my last job. This time, I knew it wasn’t going to last forever and the excitement of university was the only thing that got me through the year.
Choosing which university I wanted to attend was a hard decision; I had completely fallen in love with both the University of Nottingham and Cardiff. The University of Cardiff was a beautiful non-campus university within a stunning city, however, my study building was miles away from the heart of the university.
Whereas The University of Nottingham was a stunning campus University placed in a picturesque park surrounded by an enormous lake. The university is a couple of towns over from Nottingham centre.
During my Art Foundation I had travelled to Nottingham and spend a couple of days visiting someone at Nottingham Trent University, which is a non-campus university right in Nottingham centre. I will never forget how amazed I was with the city and the student life there. I automatically felt so at home. Nottingham is filled with buzzing nightlife, quirky bars, cute cafes and art galleries, with pubs on every corner and a tram system running throughout the city.
It is a city built for students and the students love it there.
I had never come across a city quite like it. As cringe as it sounds, I felt like a part of myself and heart belonged there. I feel as though if my personality was a city it would Nottingham. My gut was telling me that this was the university where my studies could flourish, and my sense of self would blossom. So, I went with my gut and I have not once doubted my decision once. I am now currently studying International Media and Communications, which is a theoretical Media and Communications course. Due to the ‘International’ addition, I study Spanish as one of my modules which is difficult but very rewarding.
I wanted to write this post as I think it’s important to realise that life isn’t always smooth sailing, but you need to have faith that everything will work out and maintain self-belief and motivation as opportunities will not simply fall into your lap. So, my personal advice for applying to University would be, TAKE YOUR TIME. I would highly recommend taking a gap year and filling that year with things that will benefit you in the long run.
The main reasons I believe you should take time out before university are:
· To find yourself. Know who are you and want you want before going to university. You want to go to university being confident and proud of who you are, this helps with not giving in to peer pressure and changing yourself to fit in. You also want to be studying a course you adore, not something that your parents want you to study or something that you will hate but will make you a lot of money.
· To take care of your mental health. A Levels/college is hard and you deserve the break. Likewise, university is hard as you are most likely becoming completely independent for the first time. You need to learn how to take care of your body as it is extremely easy to lock yourself in your room for weeks on end and not talk to anyone, eat properly or take care of yourself. (I’m saying this from experience). You need to learn how to pick yourself up from being in a rut.
· To make money. No one prepared me for how expensive university was going to be; the cabs, the drinks, the nights out, the events, the gym passes, the travel to and from university to home, the weekly shop… it’s a lot. Having a job before university also puts you in a better position of finding a job at University. I was lucky enough to find an on-campus job in my student union, but my managerial experience is was made me stand out.
· To live your life. While you're young, go explore and throw yourself out of your comfort zone. Go travel, go to festivals and meet new people who will give you a new perspective on life. It’s so much harder to do these things when you’re at university or in a full-time job. I visited Prague and South Africa and went to 3 festivals on my gap year and all those experiences really helped me grow as a person. You will only ever learn more about yourself when you put yourself in unusual settings.
Good luck!
Love Lola x
Thank you so much.. ive been down for awhile about being a year later than my friends and classmates.. and this article really helped.. thank you so much 🙌💗