Choosing the 'right' thing to study at University can be a very daunting experience for many young people. Some are lucky enough to know what they want do as a career from a fairly young age and know what they need to study to be able to get there. But if you're anything like me and love trying anything and everything creative then it can be hard.
I've been a very creative person from a very young age (since birth I swear) and always loved art and drawing at school. I attended a saturday art school for 4 years, took Art and Textiles as two of my GSCE's, and decided to take Graphic Design and Art at A-Level. College and A-Levels were where things changed. After the first two weeks of starting college, I dropped Art. I just didn't enjoy it anymore and if I had to draw another 'still life' piece I may have actually died. I found it all rather 'samey', just on a slightly more advanced level of what I had done in my school years. Enough was enough, I wasn't happy, time for change. Graphic Design on the other hand was great and I loved it. It felt 'new' and 'fresh' and I felt free to experiment with different techniques and have fun designing things from logos, posters and packaging. So what did I take instead of Art you might be asking? Nothing artistic at all actually, I chose Media Studies. Funnily enough it turned out to be my most favourite subject of them all, and by all I mean throughout my entire educational life so far. One of the best decisions I ever made. No joke. It helped 'shape' the person I am today by steering me in a new direction which has lead me on to great things. :)
Towards the end of college were where things got tricky again. The very thought of Uni or hearing the word 'UCAS' made me feel physically sick. I didn't want to think about uni as I had no clue what so ever on what I wanted to do. My main problem was that I wanted to do everything. I had loved every minute of ICT, Media and Graphics and wasn't ready to settle down and study in just one area. I wished that i'd find a course that combined my 3 A-Levels (in an ideal world...) I was very worried and felt like I was going no where at that point and just wanted to hide in my room and forget about it all. Then, a glimmer of hope. A 'Foundation Diploma in Art and Design' caught my eye and I jumped at the chance to enroll. This was perfect, exactly what I needed. It involved everything, and I mean literally everything. I got the chance to experiment in Graphics, Illustration, Animation, Fine Art (Zzzz), 3D, Textiles, Film and Photography. After rotating through all the different subjects I then got to specialise in one area for my final major project and decided to go with Graphic Design. This is where it looked like things were going, I was going to get on the Graphic Design degree and become a Graphic Designer and make lots of money YAAAY... No. When the end of this year came, it got tricky. AGAIN. I applied for the two Graphic Design courses at the Uni I was at, as this was where I wanted to stay. My lecturers advised me that I should apply to more universities but what was the point when even if I got in I wouldn't have bothered to go anyway. I wanted to be at this uni and that was that. Anyway, after both interviews and trying to stay positive, I got a no. From both courses. By this point I was literally panicing. I had nothing else to go for and began thinking I would never get into uni. All motivation was gone.
After a few weeks of moping around and pondering on what to do, my lecturer showed me another course that the uni offered, one that I had some how not heard of before, 'Digital Media Production'. There were still a few spare spaces on the course and I was told I could just pop upstairs for an informal interview with the course leader if I was interested. After researching into what the course involved, that's exactly what I did.
And the rest is history...
