Odd Question

What colleges have you attended?

Colleges and universities are one of the ways that humans are judged for the rest of their lives. They can make or break you socially or financially, even though it’s generally reckoned that a degree becomes a piece of paper after 2 years. Unfairly, the lack of attendance at college or university can cause the best, hardest working, most willing to learn, funny, charming, decent, people to be dismissed.

Just remember that the very wealthy and successful Sirs Richard Branson and Alan Sugar, fall into the second group. It’s who you are and what you do that counts. With a huge dollop of inspiration and self belief thrown in.

Self-belief is the key to everything. It transcends intelligence, education, birth status. Everything but common sense and realism. They’re both utterly necessary.

Believing in yourself should never be coupled with the belief that you know everything there is to know about all that matters. Intelligent people still enjoy learning. But to keep going age succeed we need self-belief. It’s what I was lacking.

To answer the question

I have a History degree from Bath Spa University and a Masters in Computing from the University of Bath.

I was advised that vocational degrees were important, one with a clear career path at the end of it. A path you want to follow. They didn’t add that bit. I didn’t realise until too late that history was the perfect degree for journalism, which I would have loved providing I was allowed to be authentic and honest. Hey ho.

I did decide I wanted to be a history lecturer, but as a result of my father’s death I dropped marks for one complete semester, I pulled it back in year 3, got my 1st class honours. My work was sent to external invigilation who check on the quality of the university. There was a new guy that year, he was definitely sweeping clean and dragged down all the marks of the students whose work was sent out. Including mine. Landed up missing the degree I needed by half a percent!

One of my tutors said he’d back me for a PhD, but I’d already read the paperwork. It said very clearly, in bold, in a red box, that if you did a year’s work – which would cost you £2000 to be allowed to do it – they only looked at first class honours submissions. In bold it said that “Your work will go straight in the bin, we will not even look at it.” I couldn’t afford to waste money like that.

That’s what moved me on to the computing degree. Teensy problem with that £3,500 undertaking, to get into computing at the time you began as a programmer. I could not programme. So there endeth that story. I did go for interviews, was the token woman at the time, and was turned down for one job because I said I liked all history except the Victorian Era. I should have sued them. 

So there I was, two degrees, no job, feeling more stupid than I had before I obtained them. I thought they’d prove that I was intelligent as I’d been held back by my lack of O’Levels – now GCSEs. Now I was held back by half a percent and sexism. 

I landed up back in the same career I’d always had, but in the best job I ever had. For the first time what I was worked in an admin role, and I was encouraged by my boss to do more, take on more, in that way my degrees did help me.

Big learning

The big thing I took from this is that although education is important, it’s who you are that is more than important. 

I was so beaten down by acute anxiety that I never fought for me. I simply didn’t have the energy. Stand in my way now and I will politely move past you and keep going. 

If you trust yourself, if you value yourself, if you have self-respect, then any blips in your educational path will be just a footnote to the rest of your life. 

“If you can meet with triumph and disaster and
meet those two imposters just the same.” 
If
by Rudyard Kipling

You will do well in life, degree or no degree. You will find your path, find your way along it, and thrive.

So those are the universities I attended. That’s what happened. And the reason I titled this ‘odd question’ is that both is and isn’t important. The real question is:

Who are you and what are you made of?

Deb xx