Welcome to Life After School

Life After School

In my previous blog, I explained how the school has failed us and why it continues to fail us.

Continuing on to the next chapter of The Story of My Life is what comes when you enter life after school and what I wasn’t prepared for.

I couldn’t wait to finish school, that last siren to sound, it was the sound of my freedom from the clutches of academic demands and the prison I was cuffed to.

When I was finishing school, it was exciting, a breath of fresh air, a whole new world.  

But that excitement also introduced stress and fear as I had to decide on which path to pursue in my future. 

It’s obvious, clear to everyone that the life we live has its highs and its lows. 

And life is funny, it has a way of preparing us to survive both extremes because believe me when I say, they both need to be survived.

I have graduated high school myself, have survived it 11 years on, and reflecting about when I did graduate, I really wish someone told me more about life after school. 

Lucky you!

A Choice Had to be Made

Like a lot of us, when I left school I was presented with two choices, forced to make one.

It was either go to university and continue studying for another 3-4 years and work in that chosen field until I’m dead and buried.

Or

Pick a trade, do an apprenticeship for 3-4 years and work in that industry until I’m dead and buried.

I didn’t like school, because I had a problem with being told what I had to learn, I didn’t want to learn about things I wasn’t interested in or passionate about.

Therefore, university had nothing to offer me, nothing at all, and there was no way I was going to endure 3-4 more years of sitting in front of a lecturer, listening to their verbal diarrhea.

So it left me with only one choice, to get a trade.

When I left high school and told my parents that I’m not going to university to study my dad’s response was “well you need to get a job”

There was no 6 month or 1-year break to enjoy life, to go on holidays to spend time with friends, to just be a kid with no responsibilities.

It was straight into the real world and In a way, In a sick and twisted kind of way, I’m thankful for that. 

High octane was a passion of mine, I always liked cars, I wanted to learn more about them, my friends were into cars and a few were going to do a motor vehicle apprenticeship.

I also always wanted to own a Nissan Skyline R32 GTS-T and build it into a freak on 4 wheels… Which I did along with multiple other cars.

It was a logical choice.

So my dad (through his network) got me straight into a motor vehicle mechanic apprenticeship at local workshop Palazzo Automotives within a month of leaving school.

Where am I going with this story? Well, first,

Life after school taught me very quickly that student life and being in high school wasn’t that bad at all, I took it for granted, I didn’t slow down and just enjoy it for its moments.

Second, life after school Introduced me to my first job and independence.

I was covered in dirt and oil for 8 – 10 hours a day, constantly bruising and cutting my hands, breaking my back lifting heavy gearboxes and differential axles and standing on my feet all day until I bled out my toes to earn minimum wage.

Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit here, maybe I’m not, but regardless I’m sure you get the idea.

That introduction to work taught me independence, which is not to be mistaken for freedom, which is something I believe a lot of people misinterpret.

Independence came from places far and close to home.

I had to learn how to stand on my own two feet, I had to adapt to having responsibilities and relying on myself.

I could no longer expect stuff from my family or friends that I expected for years previous, everything I wanted to do would only be achieved by having the expectations solely of myself.

To be independent, I had to learn how to survive in the real world. 

I didn’t have a comfortable stream of money coming from my parents anymore, even though at the time I still lived with my dad I had to pay for my fuel, car registration, phone bill, food, clothes… EVERYTHING!

I was trying to survive for a very long time, times were tough.

There was no tolerance for bullshit in the working environment I found myself immersed in, It was unforgiving but honest, there was no empathy, sympathy or compassion, just discipline, focus, and hard work.

Hard work, real work shows you who you really are and what you’re made of.

Being independent, like I said before meant I had to survive but to survive I had to drop the bullshit and work really, really hard. 

My mind had to switch over to war mode so I could go to battle each and every single day because I had to throw away the last shreds of freedom I had left in my life.

Nothing has changed, I’m still in war mode, always at battle.

This is The End

That was my welcome to life after school, a couple of lessons, and they were these:

School sheltered me too much, school didn’t prepare me for what came after.

And

I needed to prepare my mind to carry the heavyweight of my own responsibilities that I have given myself and even others when I became completely independent of my own life.

And you do as well.

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