What advice would you give to your younger self?

1. Don't go to University - it won't work out well for you. 

2. There's this thing called bisexuality that you may want to look up, if it doesn't make sense now don't worry about it, it will in 20 years.

3. Never apologise for who and what you are. 

Ferrosol said:

Don't go to University - it won't work out well for you. 

In hindsight, University was something was expected of me (by my teachers at the time), rather than something I necessarily wanted to do. While I did learn some things during my four years of Computer Science (include one year of industrial placement), very little of what we were taught actually had much relevance to what I'd end up doing.

Perhaps if I'd kept my artistic skills up, I'd have pursued something along those lines, though I suspect I'd have been poorer as a result. As it was, I ended up a graphic designer purely because I knew how to use stuff like Photoshop and CorelDRAW. So maybe I did find my calling, albeit in a roundabout way.

Ferrosol said:

Don't go to University - it won't work out well for you. 

In hindsight, University was something was expected of me (by my teachers at the time), rather than something I necessarily wanted to do. While I did learn some things during my four years of Computer Science (include one year of industrial placement), very little of what we were taught actually had much relevance to what I'd end up doing.

Perhaps if I'd kept my artistic skills up, I'd have pursued something along those lines, though I suspect I'd have been poorer as a result. As it was, I ended up a graphic designer purely because I knew how to use stuff like Photoshop and CorelDRAW. So maybe I did find my calling, albeit in a roundabout way.

Ferrosol said:

I was profoundly unsuited for the style of learning and lack of structure universities have. 

I didn't do well. I dropped out and went to wrok. Ten years later, I started studying with the Open University, found it suited me and got my degree. It was hard work combining work and study, but I got to study in a room that was comforting, without noise or distraction and in my own time. As an added extra, I could build up my degree from modules I liked.

Very much this I went to Uni because it was expected of me because I was a "smart kid" and only the "thick kids" went straight into work or learned a trade but I was profoundly unsuited for the style of learning and lack of structure universities have. 

That's not to say I didn't enjoy university but I would've done better if I'd spent five years working and then went to Uni with a better idea of what to do as a mature adult.