Before we get started, the experiences described in this column are my own. I cannot, and would not wish to, persuade or influence any of you — my few readers — from following your own paths.
Here are just a few things I wish I could have told my younger self.
My student loan is Plan 1. It will be with me until I retire or expire. I acquired this loan over twenty years ago by trying something at eighteen that was never going to work. I had a great Religious Studies teacher who once said that God can’t make square circles. I think this is one of the truest phrases I’ve ever come across.
Cutting to the truth: universities, particularly ones here in the UK, don’t care about you. Universities care about your money. At the bottom of it all, they are a business.
So if you are an unlucky one like I was this September — if you are a square circle — what is the answer?
Walking away will get framed as a failure, when often the opposite is true. Go with your instincts. I wish I had.
I learned more in the workplace, and now as someone self‑employed, than I ever did in an institution.