Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Topic started by: essexian on 15 August, 2019, 08:27:01 am
-
As today is A Level results day, I was wondering if you could go back in time and speak to your teenage self, what advice would you give them? Of course they are unlikely to listen but lets pretend that they do....
My advice to myself would be: "Don't get ideas. You are nothing and will remain nothing. No one really cares what you think so keep your head down, earn what you can and enjoy what you can but don't go about thinking you will change the World. You won't."
I know that sounds depressing but I think its best to be honest with myself.
The second piece of advice would be: "ASK HER OUT. She will say yes" as she told me she would have 20 years later! :facepalm:
So, any thoughts?
-
"On yer bike!"
-
Hmmmm...
"Ditch her, she'll only run off with your best mate anyhow"
"Stay in the technical engineering bit of engineering - once you're out there's no way back in"
"Don't stop riding, you'll only regret it later on when looking back at them wasted none bike years"
-
"On yer bike!"
That.
-
Wondering what would have happened is a much bigger burden than apologising for what went wrong.
-
Take the red pill.
-
Ask for shares in Microsoft and Apple as an 18th and early 21st birthday present. Those young companies are going to become something big. Microsoft will release a new operating system next year, that will change the world.
You don't need this advice but keep up with the cycling and mountaineering. It'll be good for your long term mental and physical health.
-
Stop worry about what other people think of you. It is harmful and a waste of emotional energy.
-
Make them get Dan’s head scanned.
And go to the doctor about that itching!
-
Stop trying to please everyone
-
One of the benefits of growing up in non-academic family was that no one really cared, both A- and O-levels were an abstract concept mostly reserved for middle-class hells. I can't say I worked too hard.
-
In 40 years time youngsters will laugh at your results.
-
I wouldn't give any advice 1. That could maybe change things and I wouldn't end up as who I am now. And I quite like me as I am.
Even if others don't. :demon:
1 I might point and snigger a bit, though.
-
[OT]43 years on, I've just had a former classmate round for a chat as he was in the area.
We acknowledged the date and chatted about things we knew about other schoolmates.
We did not discuss how we'd done the same subjects but my grades were good enough for Medical School and his were not.
-
You are not half as good as you think you are. Looking back at my 6th form school reports from 50 years ago confirms that.
Accept that when people talk about engineering they mean mechanical stuff, having no concept of electrical/electronic/avionic/marine/civil or any other sort. So don't get pissed off.
If you stay in electronic/electrical engineering then do so in a small company. not a big one where you will be undervalued. Preferably ------ leave the country to get a decent salary and respect.
Main point is - you cannot plan your career and life. Bad things happen and tremendous opportunities happen too. So you might as well get on with enjoying the here and now.
-
Work overseas
Get into oil and gas early
Get into energy and emissions early
And buy shares in this thing called Amazon, or Berkshire Hathaway
But seriously, I couldn't have doen much better at A-level and I'm happy with where I went, apart from perhaps that working overseas bit. I could have moved into emissions and GHG type stuff earlier, but I've probably got more real world perspective to bring to it now.
-
Well, looking at some of the people I knew, who never really did anything but take a local job – get out, even if you don't like it, you can still go back. But there's an entire world out there. Coming from a family that through 'down Nottingham' was a long way, I'm pleased I made the decision to get out and more to spend several years living abroad. To be honest, the opportunity to go the university was really an opportunity to get out.
-
Travel more.
I did a fair amount of cycle-touring in the UK while I was at school, and when I left (at 17) I did two solo tours of France, and then a hitchhiking trip round Ireland. Then I got married. I certainly don't regret getting married, but I (or we) should have taken the opportunity to travel much more, to much more interesting places.
-
We travelled enough pre-kids, though I've probably travelled far more and more exotically with work in the last few years.
Family travel has been limited in the last 16 years with having a seriously disabled son, doesn't mean I would have made different choices though
-
Get to see as many upcoming bands as you can and keep the tickets if they print them. One day, at least a few will have become big enough to play Wembley and you'll be able to say that you saw them back in the days when they were good / so bad you never thought they'd survive until Christmas*, at a venue so small that you could count the zits on the bass player's face.
(As an aside, I have always teased my mother about the fact that when she got to see The Beatles, the drummer was still Pete Best, so it doesn't count.)
*In the former category, I can claim Echo & The Bunnymen and Squeeze; in the latter, it's Depeche Mode and U2.
-
My mum (wallasey) is still pi$$ed off that all of her Beatles records disappeard while she was at nursing college
-
Get to see as many upcoming bands as you can and keep the tickets if they print them. One day, at least a few will have become big enough to play Wembley and you'll be able to say that you saw them back in the days when they were good / so bad you never thought they'd survive until Christmas*, at a venue so small that you could count the zits on the bass player's face.
(As an aside, I have always teased my mother about the fact that when she got to see The Beatles, the drummer was still Pete Best, so it doesn't count.)
*In the former category, I can claim Echo & The Bunnymen and Squeeze; in the latter, it's Depeche Mode and U2.
Ohh yes.
-
GCSE or alevels?
A levels - go to the posh school to do your alevels you got accepted to.
But then I would have ended up going to uni where I did.
Don't know.
-
Study what you are interested in, not what you think you should be doing.
Try blacksmithing as a hobby.
Chill out more. Stop being so defensive and prickly, you don't have to prove anything.
-
Butterfly effect notwithstanding, it'd probably be something along the lines as: "You're not as clever as everyone thinks you are. Avoid maths. Your parents' toxic relationship will always take priority over your wellbeing. Learn to love your geeky nature. It gets better."
-
Study what interests you.
As for careers advice it's quite possible that what you will end up working most of your life on is still an experiment in someones garage.
-
Also, enjoy it now, there are fifty years of looking at spreadsheets ahead, or until someone builds a smarter robot.
-
Cut the
red blue wire.
-
Also, enjoy it now, there are fifty years of looking at spreadsheets ahead, or until someone builds a smarter robot.
I like looking at spreadsheets though.
-
Cut the red blue wire.
Carefully de-solder the wire, because it'll be too short if you cut it.
-
Cut the red blue wire.
Carefully de-solder the wire, because it'll be too short if you cut it.
Its not going to reach that other tab however you disconnect it.
-
Cut the red blue wire.
Bah. Cut'em both, reconnect them crossed and let the next bugger sort it out.
-
Study what interests you.
I did - mechanical engineering. I think the sector in the U.K. has been in decline ever since! OTOH both my daughters studied degrees in subjects they knew would give them good grades (geography for one, chemistry for the other) without ever wanting a career in them.
-
At 40 years old, you're not old, and you will still be able to have fun, and be seriously active.
Spend as much time outdoors doing as much fun stuff as possible.
Don't make hasty decisions, but equally, don't overthink stuff, gut feel is often the right way to go for a complex decision.
If a chance to do something amazing turns up, take it, don't find an excuse not to do it.
Doing dangerous stuff makes you feel more alive.
Try new stuff as often as you can.
And finally, don't try pulling a stupid amount of air with the aim of landing on a hard piste.
-
I choose my final degree on the day. I was wandering around and it was the smallest queue for registration and it seemed I had passed all the correct pre-requisites, and what the hell.
That was my take on career planning.
My sister never left home (until she was 43 – OK, she left long enough to get pregnant before returning). My niece shows no interest in going further than Morrisons. Honestly, I can't rationalize that lack of will to do anything and the dearth of ambition, but I must have been dropped on my head as a child or something.
-
O'levels: Okay but the school 6 form is not the place for you. Sadly I had been bullied through school and was petrified to go somewhere else where the dangers were unknown. A least I knew who to keep away from in the environment I knew.
A' levels: Perhaps leaving 6th Form after 3 months isn't the best way to go, but you will get the rest of your A'levels (I had two on leaving as I took O'leves early) through night school. Also, don't worry that you decide not to a Business Studies degree at the last minute, you will do the right degree for you in a couple of years. Also, ignore the jumped up plonkers of salesmen (who you work with for a while) with a couple of O'levels who treat you like you're stupid, it says more about them than you.
Overall: Bits of paper don't matter a jot, it's drive, determination and the fact that you don't give up that gets you anywhere.
-
Follow your dreams not the money
-
Plinky plonky mate, that's where it's at. Learn how to compose that plinky plonky music, can't be difficult, you can do it alongside everything else, make a plinky plonky name for yourself and by the time you grow up you'll find that they can't have any vaguely sad or emotional scene on TV without a bit of plinky plonky. Stands to reason if you can do that, you'll be made.
On a more serious note, there's no way I would have listened to anything I told me, anyway. But if I had to, I'd tell me all that obsession finding the Meaning of Life in words, poetry, lyrics? You had that right, but you missed the only important phrase: "Now all them things that seemed so important, well mister they vanished right into the air"
-
Don’t worry so much about what people think and taking a chance.
But mostly I’ve muddled through ok. I haven’t done what I thought I would on results day, but I’ve enjoyed the turns along the way.
-
Don,t try and pick up your A Level results- you didn't take any.