Hello GB Chums,
I was talking to a couple of friends tonight about this idea of "The Butterfly Effect", and honestly? I kinda get it
In my own life, I'm pretty sure everything was down to getting a grade at secondary school...
When I was at school, I always wanted to get into computers. I was into computers since our Pentium II computer with 2MB of memory, running Windows 3.1. At school, however, the way you learn about computers was different, at least in the 90s/00s. It was ALL about Spreadsheets and Databases. I liked the more practical, hardware focused, hands on stuff myself, so to be forced into, what I thought were really boring pieces of software kinda killed my love for it. Due to a lack of passion from myself and my teacher, I ended up getting a D in IT. When it came to going to college (In the UK, college is ages 16-18), I was told I couldn't do IT because I got a D at GCSE. What pissed me off was at college it was all about hardware and networking, what I was interested in. Because I didn't get a C at GCSE, I had to choose different subjects- Landing on English Literature and Language, and in a completely stupid decision, Film Studies and Media Studies. I picked them because I liked film and TV, basically. But I ended up being really good at them, smashed them at A-Level, and back then, the life trajectory was school>college>university. It was just the given thing. Because I was really good at Film/Media- I did that course at my hometowns Polytechnic university, so I could live at home and spend all my money on videogames. The day I got my student loan, I went into Manchester, bought an Xbox 360 and Mass Effect on a whim, paid in full, no questions asked. I got the train home like the cat who'd got the cream.
Anyway, I absolutely smashed my degree, obviously, and the only real follow-up to an Arts Degree was teaching. There just wasn't really any media/art jobs right as I came out of Uni into the recession, so I went back to Uni to do a teaching post graduate. All this because there were really no other options for people with arts degrees.
Long story short, ended up working in Primary Schools for the decade following, across pretty much every job you could name- From class teacher to Dinnerlady (Man)
Eventually, I got hired on the JET Program and was about to go teach in Japan. Then what happened? COVID hit, closing borders for the better part of 2 years, killing any dream or prospect I ever had of going to Japan. However, I met the most amazing girl ever through the JET Program, taught the same as me, also caught up in the COVID Fuckup. We bonded, got together, now we live together, engaged, married next year.
I work in a call centre now for one of the Big Six energy companies in the UK. It's a high end call centre, but I'm a professional phone answerer/Email responder.
Funny where life takes you, huh? I got a D at GCSE ICT, which meant I did Film and Media at college, then for a degree, then onto teaching, then meeting my partner and getting marrried in a year. All because I got a D in ICT
Anyone else have something like this? I'd love to hear your crazy story
Log in to comment