Minna's guest blog - What she wished she'd known at school

How shaking off assumptions of what University would be like, lead her to a positive outcome for her educational journey.

Hello students reading this! My name is Minna, I’m a stand up, writer and speaker originally from Somerset but now living in Nottingham. If Push have delivered a session in your school recently, it might have been from me (hint: I’m the one with the Kermit the Frog tattoo).

I was at school in the late 2000s to the mid 2010s, not that long ago but it feels like a lot has changed since I was in my school uniform. I went to a state school, out in the sticks in Somerset - you could practically see cows and farms when you were staring idly out the window in science.
There was a lot to love about my school, but unfortunately I felt I was under a lot of pressure to go to University. My teachers talked about University constantly and didn’t really talk to us about what we could do after school that wasn’t Uni. Adding to that, my parents had both gone to University, as had my older brother, and I definitely felt there was an assumption that I would also go.
I don’t need to tell you, when you’re 16 and someone assumes you’re going to do something - it makes you not want to do it.
There was more to it than that in my case. I have a processing condition called Irlen’s Syndrome that went undiagnosed for a long time while I was at school. It’s not really well known, but it has symptoms similar to dyslexia. My handwriting is awful, I struggle reading for long periods of time and I spell the simplest words wrong. My school did their best to understand why I would get great grades but still spell the word ‘friend’ wrong, but never really got their head around it. I didn’t get the support I needed a lot of the time, which made a lot of school really difficult for me, exams in particular.
So when the question “do you want to go to University” was put to me at 16 years old, I thought nothing sounded worse than signing myself up for 3 more years of agonising hours forcing myself to read though my head is aching, being embarrassed about spelling easy words wrong in essays and feeling like I’m lagging behind.

But I didn’t know what else I could do. I kind of felt like I was staring at a brick wall.


What I wish I’d known in school -
First, that University isn’t just one thing. It’s not all dusty old books and dusty old professors, writing 30 page essays in dusty old libraries. This is something I’d find out when, spoiler alert, I went to University myself - twice! I chose courses that were practical, studying Theatre then scriptwriting. I also advocated for myself, asking for the help I needed to access my studies in the same way as my peers.
Second, there are so many other things to do when you leave school that isn’t go to University.  In this country, every young or old person should have the option to pursue higher education at University; it’s a right but also a choice. It’s not for everyone, and that’s good because it means we aren’t all the same. We all have our own strengths, weaknesses, priorities and goals and our options at 18 should reflect that. Degree apprenticeships, apprenticeships, internships, part-time work, volunteering and travelling are all valid options. 

You don’t have to have the rest of your life sorted and planned out on your last day of school age 18. Change and challenge are part of life. Trust the journey you’re on - it’s your own and no one can tell you where you should end up. 

What happened this month in 1994: 
- Disney releases The Lion King
- OJ Simpson goes on the run from the US Police, after being suspected of killing his wife, ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her boyfriend, Ronald Graham. He is chased for 90 minutes and the whole thing is broadcast on TV (I mean, only in the 1990's! 🙈😱)

Author

Minna Davies is a writer, stand-up comedian, and speaker for Push. They earned their BA in Theatre: Writing, Directing, and Production from the University of York (2016-2019) and an MA in Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (2019-2020). With a dynamic background in the performing arts, Minna brings a unique blend of creativity and humour to their work, captivating audiences through various mediums.

Picture by: Jose Martin Ramirez Carrasco