Oysters

Growing up in Canberra, most of the people I went to high school with went to uni when they finished school. I say this not to point out my own privilege, though I will always be the first to admit that my life has been incredibly privileged. I say it to convey that I grew up in an environment where I came to believe that to get anywhere in life, you needed to have a university degree.

And I was a uni dropout.

Artists impression of me moments before dropping out of Uni.

I got 4 weeks into mechanical engineering before I realised that it wasn’t for me. Then I got 2 years into a psych degree and dropped out because I had three jobs and figured it would all work out. I got a job at a sleep clinic and ended up working there for five years, then one more at a different clinic.

I think It was in the third year of that career that I started to want out. I was unhappy and wanted to be doing something else. Every time the feeling overwhelmed me, I would go onto Seek or some other job-hunting site and browse the options.

Accurate image of me doing a half-assed job looking for work.

I would look at jobs that interested me and see the requirements. A lot of them required a degree or experience in the field. Proficiency with certain systems, programs or training. Almost without fail, the old fear would wind its way through me. Why would they hire me? I don’t have any of these things.

And I wouldn’t apply to save myself the disappointment of the rejection I knew would be coming. Or on the odd occasion, I would half-heartedly send off a lukewarm application, which would be knocked back and reaffirm my fears.

So I spent the next 3-4 years of my life feeling trapped in my career. I was over it and unhappy but I couldn’t leave because I wouldn’t be able to get a job anywhere else. I was a failure. Then, when I finally moved to a new town and a new job (within the same field of course), Possibly the best thing happened.

I lost my job.

It rocked me and at the time I was a mess. But it took that boot up the bum to make me pursue my current life. It’s been a terrifying five years but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Though it caused a strange change in me.

Before, I thought that there was nothing else I could do. That I would have to stay in my career forever because there were no options available to me. Now, though, I know that I can do anything.

And, perhaps predictably, now I want to do everything!

Just look at all those oysters! This could also be you, just like, rolling in oysters all day every day.

Writing is my main job, but I want to make games, be a creative consultant, make awesome websites and be a voice actor. Anything and everything.

After all, the world is my oyster.