Struggling with your Future?

I've discovered through my wonderful messages and emails from you guys, that a lot of your troubles and stress, come from your worries about where your life is going. I felt I should do a post explaining all about where these fears come from - And hopefully even help you gain a better perspective for making these decisions - Even if you're sure of what you want to do, please take the time to read this. (Everything here is my own words)

The Corruption of Modern Education

All of these fears and problems stem from how we are raised. Not necessarily our home life. But our education. From the age of around 5, we are introduced to this place called school. Not by choice, but we are simply told that this is the right place to be at this time in our lives, and naturally - we accept this as fact, because it's the 'grown ups' telling us to and as children, this is the only thing we know. We meet other children and are introduced in to the social world, this helps form our communication skills. Which is great, we begin to learn what we like to do and how we like express ourselves. So school is a place we start to enjoy - We will continue accepting it in to our day to day life and continue to make it part of our routine.

However the nature of school soon changes - We begin to learn about different things, instead of it being about meeting new people, making new friends and developing your basic human skills and being a platform for learning what you're good at and what you enjoy - It becomes about control and reprogramming, these adults no longer want to read your short stories about butterflies and walks to the park. They want to hear your 2,000 word evaluation on a novel of their choice. Even though we no longer enjoy what we're doing, we continue to do it... Simply because we have been told we have to.

“The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how to be submissive, and so on -- because they're dysfunctional to the institutions.”

- Noam Chomsky

“Children learn what they live. Put kids in a class and they will live out their lives in an invisible cage, isolated from their chance at community; interrupt kids with bells and horns all the time and they will learn that nothing is important or worth finishing; ridicule them and they will retreat from human association; shame them and they will find a hundred ways to get even. The habits taught in large scale organizations are deadly.”

- John Taylor Gatto

I chose to use these particular quotes, because to me they best explain what I am trying to get across through this piece of writing - And also to show that anyone who has felt this way, you are not alone.

Any sense of individuality and passion and creativity that we have - Is slowly forced away from us, our work becomes identical, as do our thought processes. Exactly the way we are reprogrammed to think and act, we begin to do. The reason for this is that the government doesn't want free thinkers and open minded explorers and discoverers who won't contribute to their wages. They want pencil pushers and factory workers who are willing to work for them until the day they die and be none the wiser that they had a choice the whole time.

Making the Forced Decisions

So now that you've just finished school, and been told by that letter on a piece of paper what this corrupt system thinks you are capable of achieving for the rest of your life, you now face the decision at age 16 of what you want to do with the rest of your life.

Sound fair?

Naturally having been forced in to the the education system for the past 11 years of your life and not knowing any different, you are feeling scared to start your 'real' life. So what seems like a good fix for this? Continuing on in education, obviously. Sixth form.. College.. Both equal opportunities to continue avoiding throwing yourself in to reality and having to deal with the fact that you are now in control. We are made to feel so young and unready all the way through our education, that when it comes to the point where it's actually an option to continue on in the system - We feel so unprepared and naive that fear keeps us in it. Even if you hate every second of it, and loathe waking up everyday, you still do it. Which is exactly what the government rely on, they rely on our fear to keep us living the life they have planned out for us. It's up to you to wake yourself up from this illusion and realise that every second you are spending doing this, you are wasting valuable time of your own life, the life that YOU have to live. No one's judgmements or opinions should ever make you feel like you are making the wrong decision, not even those of your family.

Choose to Deny this Illusion

As I've said multiple times throughout this post - This is all optional. It may not feel this way and you may have never been told this before, but it is all a choice that is made by you and only you. Is further education what YOU want? Or is it simply what you have been told and made to believe you want? Because if not then please, for your sake.. Seek better for yourself. Create your own story and live your life on your own terms. There is a whole world full of options and new paths and different adventures and journeys waiting to be had - Simply being missed because of your own fear and conditioning.

Don't loose yourself in an effort to become something written on a piece of paper. There is more to life than you will every learn in school, college or univeristy - whether you choose to attend or not, don't loose sight of your priorities and who you are in the world.

A World full of Opportunity

We aren't really told about many (if any) of our other options when we initially leave school - Our lack of knowledge about other opportunities is another reason why we would naturally choose to just continue in education. I would always suggest travelling - Purely because this is such an amazing way to clear your headspace and help you better discover who you are and what it is you want to spend your life doing. If your decision does end up being University or College, there is nothing wrong with this. As long as the choice is yours and is coming from the right place.

Some assume that in order to travel, you need lots of money. This is wrong - A great place to look if you're considering different options at any point in your life, is online places like Gumtree. They always have a wide range of different adventures and opportunities, from volunteering in Thailand with tigers, to being a camp counsellor in America! For some of these jobs, the only payment you need is your flight. The rest is all included. It's a great way to discover new cultures and see life from a different perspective. Even just for a couple of weeks at a time. You don't need years of saving, just enough to get you there and the belief that you can achieve this.

You should never settle in life, always be filled with passion and curiosity.

I hope this can help to solve some of the problems you may be having when debating what to do when leaving school - You have a lot more options and opportunities than you may think you do. Just have faith and an open mind in your decision making!

Namaste, Brooke x

#advice