The Journey Begins

The journey really began long before the creation of this blog. I was always a career committment-phobe, and even in school I chose my subjects in a way that would close as few doors as possible. I grew up in an education system that forces early specialisation, but I skirted around that too - for my A-Levels I took one science, one social science, one language and one arts subject. Of course there were some I liked more than others, and probably Maths, which I went on to study to Masters level, above all others, but I was never fulfilled by just one subject. I loved studying while I could take several modules at a time, I found the specialism of my dissertation stifling, and I have always been happiest when I've had a broad range of 'extra curricular' activities in my life to mirror my interests.

I sometimes wonder whether I haven't yet found 'my subject', but as time goes by I increasingly feel that I am just meant for interdisciplinary work. I enjoy making connections, and even a lot of what I liked about Maths was how it helped me to understand the rest of the world - the laws of shape and form, concepts readily found in nature such as growth (don't believe me? check this out), and formal logic as used in philosophical arguments, to name a few. For me Mathematics is an abstract reflection of reality, which suits me quite well since I'm not so good at dealing with the real world first hand.

I am deviating. The point of this is my career, or the way in which I'm going to be paying the bills, since unfortunately I do live in the real world. This goes beyond academic subjects and into interests and talents that are not so easily categorised by our schooling system. I have spent the better part of the last 27 years trying to figure out what my interests and talents are, so that I can pick a career (or five, as I've always half-joked half-imagined I would have) accordingly. I've tried a few too. Most recently I found myself in banking. Stayed two years in a job I intended to do for 3 months. It turns out I make a fairly decent Risk Analyst, but that analysing risk isn't what makes me excel or achieve my potential or feel challenged or fulfilled.

Over the last few months a course of actions occurred that got me from 'fairly decent Risk Analyst' to where I am now: unemployed by choice, sitting in my dressing gown at midday on a Tuesday writing a blog. I will try to document the best of those too as I feel there is something to learn from them and they form the foundations of the journey ahead. Ultimately it all came down a feeling... "I want so much more than this".

So the journey continues, and as it does I know I will make a lot of mistakes, feel inspired at times and demoralised at others, forget the point, lose sight of the goalposts, produce good work and bad. The idea of this blog is to document it to help me learn from all those experiences. It won't always be easy, but I will keep trying, because deep down I really believe that it can be better.