How I Almost Made The Biggest Mistake Of My Life…

So as some of you know, I am currently in university studying English Literature with Creative Writing. If you didn’t know well now you do.

I’m almost done with the second year of my degree and I have one more year left after this and I’ll finally be free! I’m honestly so ready to get this degree over and done with, don’t get me wrong I love my degree – However, I am ready to start the life I know I’m truly destined for. I don’t intend to get a 9 to 5 job after my degree because I already have a job. Writing.

I’ve been making good money from writing for over three years now and I could be making even better money if I was doing writing full time. That means no school and just 24/7 focus on my career. So that’s my plan. Now you’re probably wondering what on earth this has to do with my blog post title… well let me explain.

I applied to university with a different degree. A degree that is going to most likely make you think I’m crazy (Or not lol).

The degree I initially intended to study at university was physiotherapy (Americans call it physical therapy). Physiotherapy used to make so much sense to me because I was always a straight A student when it came to the three sciences, especially Biology which was my fav! My Nigerian mother lowkey wanted me to study medicine but deep down I knew that I hated hospitals and didn’t want to waste so much of my life studying medicine. Despite knowing that I wasn’t a fan of hospitals, I still researched a scientific field and ended up stumbling upon physiotherapy. I think when I initially found out what physiotherapy was, I was mainly enticed by the ‘therapy’ part because I enjoy talking to people. Genuinely. Becoming a therapist was one of my options but because I had always been so good at biology I decided to ignore the option of doing psychology.

So physiotherapy was my focus once applying to universities and I went to many interviews talked all about the subject like it was my passion when deep down writing was my true passion. It’s funny because while applying to university I was still writing and selling books. I was receiving good royalties each month and you would think that this would convince me to study a writing based degree. I won’t lie, I considered not going to university at all and I spoke to my publisher about it, but she advised me to definitely get a degree. The number one thing about this industry that she made me totally aware of was that it is relatively new. You don’t want to put your eggs in one basket because what if one day something happens to Amazon? Or my readers decide to stop reading my books (God forbid). Having a degree to fall back on is smart and something that I knew I couldn’t miss out on. At the end of the day, my mother raised me to have strong academic goals. So that only pushed me further to secure a degree.

Back to physio though. So like I mentioned earlier I went to many interviews and got offers from some universities while others declined me. I remember being so gutted out about a particular university in a different city (Birmingham) declining my application due to their spaces being full for the course. In my mind that was the only university, I could go to. I now see that that university declining me was a blessing in disguise and I was just yet to realise it. I set my sights on a different university based in London and put my focus on that one. I managed to get in and was accepted to study physiotherapy along as I got the required grades they wanted.

Results day came and I got the email telling me of my accommodation agreement from the university, making me realise that I had gotten in. One of my grades had slipped but surprisingly they still accepted me.

So here I was. Excited yet nervous to finally start university. The first day of lectures arrives and I walk in, ready to get learning. Then as soon as the teacher starts teaching a dark cloud settles on my head. And that’s when it suddenly hit me.

This isn’t what I want to do with my life.

I don’t want to be a physio. I don’t want to work in a hospital. I don’t want to give out exercise routines when I don’t even exercise that much by myself. I just want to write. I want to be my own boss. I don’t want to work a 9 to 5. Am I even up at 9am every single day? No. So how does anyone expect me to have a consistent 9 to 5? Make that make sense.

And that’s when I knew I had made a very grave mistake. It didn’t matter that I had always been good at science, I had always been phenomenal in English Literature, Drama, Media – basically all my creative subjects. And I truly can’t believe I almost ignored that because I was trying to fit into a normal category. Forget fitting into a category. I don’t know why I would ever want to fit into a normal category when I don’t intend to live a normal life.

Thankfully my mother totally understood my decision to change my course from physiotherapy to English with Creative Writing. I’m truly blessed to have a mother as understanding and considerate as her. She understood my struggle and knew that I wasn’t going to be able to go through three years of university with a course I had no ambition for.

I’m also grateful to God that I was able to come to my senses sooner than later.

Physiotherapy is a great course but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. It is a course that requires great ambition and interest in the field of human anatomy and exercise. I would recommend it to anyone who has a love of biology but just be prepared to dedicate all your time and energy to it. Because it is undoubtedly an extremely difficult degree.

Now I bet you’re wondering how I’m currently finding English Literature with Creative Writing… well I absolutely love it. The reading can be a bit much and the second year is definitely much harder than the first year but I wouldn’t change my course for the world.

I will say this though… when new acquaintances ask me what I’m doing with my life and I tell them English Literature with Creative Writing a few of them are under the assumption that I’m automatically going to become an English Literature teacher and it’s really annoying. Or some are just baffled that I’ve decided to do a creative degree. Some do compliment me, calling me intelligent or calling my degree fancy. Small minded people are under the assumption that in university you need to study courses such as medicine, maths or law to get a large salary. When the truth is creative careers are making a lot more coins than these doctors, lawyers and accountants. Like I said I’d rather be my own boss, and work on my own time.

I have my own business that’s not doing too bad especially since I only started it last July. And of course, I write books for a publishing house. So I can honestly say that I know what I’m doing with my life and I’m excited for what the future holds.

This turned out to be an extremely long blog post than intended. I hope you found it interesting though. Until next time,

- Jen xo