Elmo Moorby

Daily writing prompt

What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?

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When I was much younger, there were so many possibilities I could envision for my future. I’d always been creative – drawing, crafting, writing stories – though there were other things I’d considered too, vetinarian, farmer, filmmaker, baker, and coder.

I gave academics a fair shot. I studied four seperate sciences in high school, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Computer Science. As much as I found the logic of the subjects appealing, the reliance on memorisation when it came to testing led to average results. The testing structure didn’t suit me and I grew to dislike the subjects I couldn’t do well in.

This didn’t stop me from applying to university to study Computer Science. It was 2018, I’d been hounded by teachers for years, the media boasted of the lucrative business of coding and software development. If I wanted to avoid the ‘starving artist’ (or even ‘starving academic’) lifestyle then Computer Science was the way to go.

My final year of high school was disrupted, both by a personal event at the start of the year, and later by a little thing you may have heard of, Covid-19. Suddenly it didn’t really matter if i studied or not, I wasn’t allowed to take my exams anyway, the UK government would be deciding my grades for me.

That spring I still had no idea what I wanted to do. There was a Film Production course at the same University I’d been looking at before, but I knew I wouldn’t cope being away from home at that time. I began to search locally and found a Creative Writing course at my local Polytechnic.

Once July came around, I was quite lucky with the results I received. I’d been graded well in both English subjects which only reassured me of my decision to switch courses and universities on results day.

I’m sure, in another life, I’d have made a brilliant coder, developer, or physicist. But I believe that passion and happiness should decide the course of our lives. Though my degree in writing may never pay off, I enjoyed every minute, and use it every day.