Recently the A level results were released in the UK. For those who don't know A Levels stands for Advanced Level exams and are public exams taken by students in the UK to enter university. Often the A level results can make or break one's dreams.
What about my own dream? To be honest, I don't think I ever had one. I remember the day many years ago when I received my A level results. My first choice was to go to The University of Kent to read Industrial Relations, or was it International Relations? I can't remember, either way it was something relations as it sounded cool. Sadly, I didn't make the grade in one of the exams so didn't get in. My second to fifth choices were subjects that I didn't really fancy studying as I recall I hadn't paid much attention at the selection during the application round.
In those days, the internet wasn't as developed, and there was no online central clearing system. So I dug out the university application handbook and started calling the universities to see who had course vacancies that I was interested in and was willing to take me on.
Anyway, I started at A and got to E, found a place to read Sociology and Social Policy which I thought sounded interested and accepted the offer over the phone. To be honest, I had no idea what the course was about, and after studying sociology for a year, I thought it was rather boring. Luckily, us social studies students all took the same common subjects in the first year so at the end of the first year I switched courses to Policy Making & Administration. Why? Well I thought the course name sounded really grand. But more importantly, the course was run by our Government Department, and in those days, our Government department along with Cambridge University were two of the best in UK.
After I graduated, I still had no dream, or rather I don't think I ever actively sought out my dream. I got a job, started working, switched jobs, continued to work and life continued. Life was fair with me, I never had to worry much, and always found time to go away on holidays.
Today, I am very fortunate to be able to live the lifestyle I want. Maybe I found my dream without realising it?