I recently had the pleasure of attending Expose. Explore. Empower, an event within UEA Outreach’s Black Humanities Project. The event was entirely student-led, and allowed students to take part in a variety of creative activities focussing on lesser-known figures in arts and humanities.
At the end of the event, the UEA students behind the incredible project were asked, “if you had one piece of advice to give to your Year 9 self, what would it be?”. Whilst the question wasn’t for me, it certainly got me thinking – what would my answer be? When faced with these kinds of hypothetical questions, I usually struggle to come up with an answer. I’ve always been a very academic/career focussed person, and so I’d probably default to something along the lines of staying focussed and putting in the work. Life events I have experienced over the past couple of years have definitely changed this, though.
In January 2023, I was involved in a serious car crash. When driving home from university one night during my PGCE, another driver in a much larger car than mine took a sharp blind bend on a country road in excess of 60mph – a speed too high for the road conditions – and exited the corner well over onto the wrong side of the road. Unfortunately for me, I was on the approach to the bend at around 40mph in the other direction and the other driver collided head on with my car.
The Fire Service, Paramedics, and Police who arrived on the scene very promptly and were incredible in supporting me all said the same thing: “you are lucky to be alive”. I felt that – it definitely could have gone much differently, and I was lucky to be there, despite the condition I was in (and the ongoing effects still very much felt today). Whilst this really had an impact on me, it wasn’t until a friend of mine phrased it slightly differently with “how are you not dead?” that it really hit home.
Up until this point, I had been quite reserved in navigating life, and had settled for dissatisfactory situations for the promise of the end result being worth it, but this experience really changed my outlook on this as it made it very real that there is no guarantee of tomorrow. I’ve always been a careful person, but the realisation that other people’s carelessness can ruin this in an instant changed things.
The year that followed was full of reflection, self-discovery, and prioritising myself in the now. For various reasons, I left my career in teaching with no onward plan. I went to Thailand on my own for almost a month during this short career break. I took a job which I didn’t really know much about, but in an environment which seemed exciting and one which I could thrive in. I bought my first property, despite only having been employed for a month and being on a fixed-term contract. Why? Because I knew all of those things were the right thing for me to be happy. Were they irresponsible decisions to make? Maybe. Were they massive risks? Definitely – but sometimes the risk is necessary – and in this case, with my newfound outlook on life and the importance of each moment of the limited time we have in our lives, I could not settle for something which did not make me happy. I had to leave teaching; I had to go abroad; I had to find work in a positive environment; and I had to find a living situation which worked with everything else in my life. I took the risk and I did those things, and it was worth it.
So, if I had one piece of advice to give to my Year 9 self, what would it be?
Be Bold. Be Courageous. Take Risks.
After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
