This week thousands of young people around the UK received their A level results and as usual the papers have been out in full patrol sharing stories about the A grade prodigies who will now go on to the worlds best universities, find their dream job and have the perfect life.

On the other hand, there will also be thousands of young people who just missed the mark, who just received the rejection email, who feel like they’ve let their family and themselves down. They fell off the conveyor belt.

Yes, I got A-levels and yeah I went to university, but the truth is, I grew the most whilst I was unemployed. There’s something magic about falling away from societies system that changes a person. Sometimes the comfort of knowing exactly what’s next can hold you back from doing the things that you’re really meant to do.  In the time I was unemployed, I read more, I met more people, I got healthy but probably most importantly I started listening to myself.

“When the color’s taken out of your world, and all you see is black and white, is that what’s left? The absence of color, of everything near and dear to you? Or is it the essence of your very being, the truest representation of yourself?” ― Emily Dana

Of course education has its place and society still uses grades to judge a person but you need to ask yourself, who have you been learning for? Yourself, your parents, your future employer, or have you just wilfully been following the system that society has created for you?

For the first time in your life you’re going to have to do things a little differently, you won’t be re-joining the herd, there is no plan, just you. Problems create opportunities not conformity, it’s time to stop moping and turn your disadvantage into your advantage.

“Pain is temporary.” – Eric Thomas.

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