At The Dividing Line Between The East Of My Youth And The West Of My Future

I am sure I'm not alone in having a monumental debate surrounding the question of "Is university the right choice for me?". Just when I thought I had decided what I wanted to study, I am faced with the decision of "Is university what I really want?". I always thought higher education would be good for me as I have no set career path to hurl myself down but I am increasingly aware of my desire to travel and explore the world, the light of which will begin to fade as the tunnel of postgraduate jobs sucks me in.

I recently stumbled upon the instagram profile of a former student at my school filled with magnificent images of her travels across South America including Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. As I continued to scroll down, my travel senses were burning with the desire to do the exact same thing. Considering I want to study languages (and possibly international development) I see no better way to enhance my prospects than visiting and immersing myself in the countries in which they are spoken as opposed to a four-walled classroom.

Suppressing my appetite for exploration when the time for ucas application came along, I told myself that I could get an education and then visit all these wonderful places during the holidays or after my studies. However, after screwing a realistic head on, I am almost certain that this is highly unlikely; I'll be dealing with the burden of financial woes during and outside of term time and then once I'm out in the big bad world I will most likely be trying to carve out some sort of 'career' and mercilessly trying to avoid falling into part-time work and spending my life at a fast food chain.

But maybe I'm just thinking way too much.