August 2012

My Dad said something very disturbing recently. It stuck with me.

We were sitting around our dinner table, in the sunny Barbados sunshine and were discussing normal day-to-day topics. My sister has just received her fantastic AS results (but as common in the Morgan household, she doesn’t think they are good enough), and I was discussing how one of my favourite YouTubers had recently posted a video, bringing up the very true and unfortunate fact that as my peers and I graduate we inevitably face doom. The job market is so poor that we all face a lengthy period of unemployment. We can work for free, as many of us will end up doing, but we have been doing that for a very long time. How much longer will we have to work for free before we can start climbing the career ladder? Many of my friends (me included) are working right now for free. We do bits and bobs, internships and placements, in the hope that one day we will be hired, or our work experience will be viewed by another employee as pure genius and we will be scooped up and placed in a job of our dreams. Despite what the newspapers say and will continue to claim, I know my generation are one of the most hard working and determined group of people that this planet has ever had the fortune to hold. I don’t want to sound big headed but we work our arses off whilst continually facing problems and debris left behind by the past generations.  We are very close to graduating and facing one of the toughest economies, closed job market and to top it all of we are continually being ridiculed and ‘slagged off’. The elderly examiners love to claim that we are only gaining better grades because the exams are easier, the newspapers love to plaster their front pages with teenagers falling out of clubs and lecturers love to patronisingly tell us that we’ve ‘got it easy’. Anyway, I’m going off topic. What my Dad said to me was

“Well Melissa, you could be a chartered account.”

This might not seem like a shocking statement to be heard but to me, it certainly was. I am a History and English student. I didn’t even study Maths at A-level. Why on earth would I want to be an account?

“Well it is an option, you have to stop dreaming. Do you think I wanted to be a Risk Analyst at a Bank? No. You have to be realistic.”

I almost choked. No. That might not have been my Dad’s dream but he studied MATHS. Therefore, going into banking isn’t such a big leap. I am a Humanities student. To suddenly leap into the world of accountancy is a rather big change. If anything, I think it is a bit sad. The idea that I’ve worked four years for a degree, only to continue studying for two years in something completely different just because I know at the end of it I’ll have a job with a decent wage fills me with a deep sadness. I don’t blame anyone for doing it (and trust me, quite a lot of my friends have done degrees at University in things completely opposite to accountancy to suddenly decided upon graduation that that is the career they will now pursue) but for me, I will feel like it is giving up. I will be giving up on my dreams. To be honest, I am happy to work my arse for free for a couple more years as long as it means at the end of it I get to follow my dream.

So for now Dad, no, I will not be looking up accountancy courses online. I know it will put your mind at rest if I do go into accountancy as that job market is pretty strong but I am a dreamer. And to be honest I am quite happy that way for the time being. I don’t know if you realised it yet Dad but those simple words have actually made me more determined than ever to follow my dreams to doing what I want to do. Sorry, I don’t think I’ll be following you.