I’m officially over halfway through my degree! I was excited
about that thought until I realised… Do I actually have to start thinking about
my future now?
I think it’s a common thing among university students to live in
the bubble of uni-life until the last minute. Though, I feel like it’s a bit
different for those working on degrees within the arts like me. I mean, if you’re
doing accountancy at uni, then you’re likely to be an accountant right? But too
often than not getting a BA instead of a BSc has been criticised:
“How are you going to get a job?”
“It’s a very hard industry to crack… Are you sure?”
“Well, I’m doing a BSc which is actually a REAL degree...”
Etc, etc. I’ve been lucky though that my family are 100%
supportive of everything that I do, not every arts degree student can say the
same. Some with the intention of doing an arts degree don't even get the option eventually due to lack of support from family. Those of you who are in the same boat as me, I’m sure you understand what
I mean when I say that I sometimes feel embarrassed to tell people that I do
Creative Writing and Drama. I feel like because there’s such a stigma around arts
degrees, I feel kinda stupid when people ask and I answer with the truth. The
thing is, I know I’m not stupid. I’m actually quite smart? So why do I make
myself cringe when I tell people that I wanna use my ArTs dEgrEE to become a
writer of some sort? Simply, because I’ve been conditioned to.
Though don’t be mistaken, I don’t regret my decision at all.
I adore my degree and my university because it feels so RIGHT for me. I’m
simply saying that there is a stigma surrounding degrees of the sort, because
an arts degree is ‘an easy degree’ but to find a job within a creative industry
is ‘basically impossible’.
I wrote a blogpost back when I was in 6th form
about ‘Why a career in drama is possible’, and I still stick by that. Doing a
degree in theatre doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to become an actress. If
I’m being completely honest with myself, I feel my most natural and happy when
I’ve just written something. A poem, a blog post, an article, etc. So, I think
that focusing on writing is the route I want to pursue for my career (big sorry
year 11 Ceri-Anne who was dead set on being an English and Drama teacher).
Though I don’t know the specifics of what KIND of writer I’ll
end up being, there are plenty of options out there. You’ve just got to look. Ideally
I would become a best-selling poet and out-do Rupi Kaur for book sales, and be studied
at GCSE and A-level like some female Owen Sheers (not to get my hopes up, but
the two of us do have quite a lot in common). Generally though, I’m trying to
dip my toes into a few different ponds of writing, picking up some skills in
each area to hopefully become well-rounded enough that any pathway I end up on
won’t be too strenuous.
I’ve also been searching into MA degrees, to see if there
are any that interest me because truly, I love education and I know I’m in such
a privileged position to even be an undergraduate. My nan never got to go to university
when she was younger and I feel that with each step I take throughout my
education I’m bringing her along with me, making her proud. My current university
doesn’t have the sort of MA I’d like to do, but conveniently, Cardiff Uni does…
So who knows where I’ll end up or what I’ll be doing in a couple of years’ time.
Maybe I’ll read this post back with a smile or a frown in 5
years and see that I ended up somewhere I didn’t expect. It’s worth thinking about all of this at this
point in my degree, but for now, I’m gonna focus on actually following
it through.
