Ellie Simpson, Country to Canberra Teen Blogger.
As if high school isn’t daunting enough, us Tasmanian teenagers get to experience another two years in a new and fun, albeit daunting and stressful environment to decide upon our futures.
For Years 11 and 12, we put ourselves through college to answer the one question that adults love to ask:
“So what do you want to do when you finish school?”
It is a confusing question to ask us as teenagers. We as a group tend to make rash decisions based on our futures. All through high school I was set on making myself a journalist. Since then I have changed my mind too many times to count and I am back at square one. My answer to the question is simply, “I don’t know yet”.
College is our time to decide what our passion is and is supposedly the most important two years of our lives. We experience new things, meet new people and of course, study so hard our brains are fried.
Marching through the corridors, you hear the monotone buzz of several hundred voices making their way towards you. Gossip, jokes and giggles speed forward and hit you before you notice they’re there.
There are certainly some downfalls of college, but there are some perks that you can get out of the stressful two years that are Years 11 and 12.
- You don’t have to sit through classes you don’t enjoy and instead you can study the subjects you’re interested in. However, there’s the struggle of keeping up with the overflowing workload, studying for tests and maintaining concentration during class time.
- Making new friends is one of the greatest benefits of college as there are so many people. Although, sometimes there are too many people. Cafeterias are packed with teenagers and can be overwhelming if you’re not used to it.
- You have the opportunity to explore so many things in the world that we don’t even know about. There are jobs and careers that we have never heard of, places that we could only dream of going and people that we would be fascinated to meet. Then comes the struggle of what to do first. As they say, “the world is your oyster”. There is so much we could do with our lives and where do we begin?
My mum has always told me that the best way to learn about places is to visit them. Just like the question of which came first out of the chicken and the egg – what comes first, travelling or a career? College is our time as teenagers to have fun. There are huge amounts of pressure to decide on a career, presumably for life. The generations before us have not necessarily lived their lives under the one job. Don’t feel the pressure that so many of us give-in to when it comes to deciding our future. These last two years of school open so many opportunities to us and it’s our time to make the most of what we are being given.
Learn more about Ellie here and follow her on social media:
Twitter: @esimo_
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Blog: www.elliesimpsonblog.wordpress.com