Serial education drop-out looking for some advice from an educators perspective...

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a bit of advice from an educators perspective.

Now I've written all of this out, I just want to come back to say I expect some unfavourable judgement here... And pressing 'post' is actually a bit nerve-wracking. But I'm asking for advice as I'm trying to stop myself from making the same mistake again. For the 6th time.

There's a bit of a back-story so you can get the full picture...

Growing up I enjoyed school until I got to around 15 years old. I did reasonably well and was always in the top classes. At home I didn't get any support but that's fine, a lot of students don't and they still do well.

I'd say probably the last 2 years of school, for my GCSE's, I didn't really turn up. I was definitely out of school more than I was in it. My mum was constantly threatened with prosecution but it never went anywhere, and they couldn't *force* me to stay there so I just kept leaving. I didn't see any kind of future for myself so working towards one seemed like a waste of time.

All sorts happened between leaving school and 5 years later getting into a job in a call centre where I realised that I was capable of more than what I was doing.

I started studying part-time towards a law degree (degree attempt 1). I enjoyed it a lot for the first 2 or so years, and then I saw an opportunity to move out of my parents house by studying full time. So I went to study law full time (degree attempt 2), living in student halls, at a much older age than everyone else I was around. I hated it, it drove me crazy that I had to start again at the beginning of a degree I'd already completed a year of. Big mistake going full-time in the first place. But at the time getting out of my parents house was the priority. I ended up switching to study philosophy (degree attempt 3). Big mistake. And then I dropped out after 4 months.

I fell into a temp job in an office, where I learned how to use Excel, and then got interested in maths and as I was constantly dealing with stats about vehicles, engineering. So I started studying engineering (degree attempt 4) part-time. The part of my family that I admire the most are all engineers, too. So that was a factor. In my job I progressed very quickly, and ended up being hired by the client of the contract I worked on in that temp job. I had to move to the other end of the country for that job, and it wasn't right for me, and I ended up dropping my studies, quitting the job and moving back home.

I got another temp job, and then found (what I thought was permanent work) with another company. Once I felt a bit more settled again, I decided to go back to the part-time engineering course (degree attempt 5). I wasn't very successful in the job I was doing and travelled a lot, and ended up dropping the engineering just before my first end of module exam. Despite having done really well up to then.

So now I'm a year or so away from having dropped out of a degree... My "I'm capable of more than this" senses are tingling and I'm thinking about going back to study law part-time. I miss it. I can honestly say it changed who I am as a person, for what I see as better, and I think I could eventually use it to make a positive difference in the world, no matter how small it may appear to be. Whenever I've thought about it after dropping out of full-time higher education, I've said to myself "it's too late", but it's not. I guess also seeing everyone I started studying law with now qualifying and moving on to the next stages, it's coming back again.

So my questions, really, are is this crazy? Should I just accept that education isn't for me? After all my failed attempts, what quality, motivation or change should I look to see in myself before committing to another course?

The scariest thing for me, is that the Open Uni (who I've dropped out of 3 degrees with...) have told me I'm at a 'restricted' status, and would need to speak with an 'educational advisor' before being allowed to register for another course - and I get it, I'm not blind, on the face of things it absolutely looks like a bad idea. Maybe it is even just a bad idea. So maybe I can't, and maybe that's right, or if I can, is that my absolute, final, never-again last-last-last chance?

Have any of you had students who should have been capable but for some reason just constantly got in their own way? What advice would you give them, or gave them and just really wish they truly heard? What's a good reason to get back into education?

I don't want to talk to my friends or family about this because they'll just smile and nod, sigh and roll their eyes. Which is valid... But not very helpful.

So any advice would be really welcome (and please don't be too hard on me.)

Submitted May 15, 2018 at 08:09AM by Desert_Rose69 https://ift.tt/2IDX3Ul