Feeling the Fear and Doing It Anyway - My Experience after Leaving University

My name is Melisa Gomez. My transition story will be based on going from first year of university, to a gap year out in the real world. Why did I leave uni? Let me give you a back story.
I entered university in 2017 straight from highschool. To be honest, I didn’t really know what i was doing. Academics has always been extremely important in my family, and I was a high achiever at school. My mind had always been set on going acing a degree at the University of Auckland straight after high school. However, when I came to the decision of degree, I realised I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to study. After a lot of research, I decided to dive into a conjoint of Business and Psychology. Psych because it was something that always interested me, business because... I guess that’s the go to option when you really don’t know. This commenced to a year of stress, overworking, and many panic attacks.

As I said, academia was extremely important to me, and I set myself tasks to achieve the highest results which took a huge impact on my wellbeing. One day I had an assignment for business, and after researching for days on end, eliminating any social life or health habits, I came to a breaking point. It was the first time I failed to submit an assignment, and I felt like a failure. My parents were worried, and told me that if I was really this unhappy then I should just take a break. It’s funny how at just 18 years old you seem to put so much more pressure on yourself than anyone else around you.
However, I did realise I was extremely unhappy, but didn’t want to quit halfway through so I worked throughout the year, and after many days of changing my mind mini freak outs I made the decision of not signing up for 2018. This was the best decision I have ever made.
This is my journey so far: One day before I left for an overseas trip I decided to check my emails and saw that the Unleashed Space (an Innovation and Entrepreneurship space at UoA) was hosting a free 6 week Summer Lab at the beginning of the year. Since I wasn’t going to uni I thought might as well and decided to join. It’s incredible this decision. Since I’m high school I had always focused so much on grades, I had never thought of the option of doing an extracurricular activity. I always thought if I did it would impact my grades. How wrong was I.
I came back from my overseas trip and had two weeks before the lab started. I swelled in my mind millions of reasons as to why I shouldn’t go, but on the day that came I sucked it up and headed off to the new journey.
This is where I discovered my passion for social innovation and entrepreneurship. For the next couple of weeks I was exposed to skills I’d never heard of before, and instead of reading about businesses, we created our own! Even Though it didn’t turn in to anything afterwards, it opened my life up to beauty of startups.
Not having the pressure of focusing my energy on studies, I have been able to dedicate my time to things that I love. I now read all the personal development books that grow me as a person (and had been putting off for years), listen to interesting podcasts that interest me, dedicating time to clubs such as Toastmasters and MoveSpace, volunteering teaching children about values and virtues,  and the biggest impact has been opening my life up to many different opportunities. I realised that the world is not just about grades. It’s about working hard on what you truly love to do, experimenting and having fun, and spending time with those who you love.

I now realise that at only 20 years old, the opportunities are endless. I don’t need to stress myself out thinking of ‘success, success, success’. Honestly, the time I have had to reflect have made me realise my true drive and want for travel. To explore the world, learn about new cultures and see it from a different perspective. So I have actually made the decision which I had been putting off and booked my ticket to Thailand next year. I am prepared to travel for a minimum of five months and just LIVE.
I am not saying university is important. I still highly value education and am extremely grateful I have the opportunity to even study. But by taking the leap of faith and doing something I so greatly feared, I realised that there is so much more out there than an A+! The beauty of uni for us is that at any moment, we are able to go back and study if we want to. It’s not a leave forever, but a temporary (if that’s what you want).

I am now looking forward to many more adventures that are to come, and living life everyday knowing that if today was my last day, I would be happy with my decision.
Books that had a huge impact:
The Four Hour Work Week - Tim Ferris - https://fourhourworkweek.com
Vagabonding - Rolf Potts
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
The Magic Of Thinking Big - David J. Schwartz
The Obstacle is the Way - Ryan Holiday
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
Spaces to get involved in:
Ted Talks:
Happiness is All in Your Mind: Gen Kelsang https://youtu.be/xnLoToJVQH4
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable: Luvvie Ajayi https://youtu.be/QijH4UAqGD8




Comments

  1. Unknown29 August 2018 at 18:05

    I'm proud of you 🦄 so excited to see what you get up too~ <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown4 September 2018 at 18:50

    Proud of you Mel. Pretty sure you will find your way to happiness.

    ReplyDelete

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