Life after Leaving Cert

Good evening you lovelies! Well if you've been keeping an eye on my Facebook page, you would have seen that I went to the Careers Options West 2013 workshop in the Galway Bay on Tuesday. Myself and a few other of my classmates went along to talk to students about careers in fashion and what GTI can offer them. We got a load of good feedback but I couldn't help but notice an ever so dominating question, "what are the points?".

Okay so it's really no secret that we do in fact need points to do most courses. Whether it may be 200 or 600 points, it's the only thing on a LC student's mind. Yes of course it's important but it is no way the be all and end all. A lot of you were also worried about getting judged for wanting to go to a school like GTI. I won't lie to you, I was too. That was why literally no one in my year knew I wanted to go into fashion. Whenever I seemed to tell anyone, all I'd get was "why the hell would you do that" or "that's a dead end job with no prospects". Pardon my language, but that is complete and utter bullshit. It was so upsetting and shocking to hear from some of you that the influence of what your peers had to say is what was putting you off of doing the course. I know it's hard to hear because I've heard it myself. I got 395 points (which I was so so happy with and still am!) and when people heard that they'd ask "why the hell are you in GTI then if there's courses in NUIG that you'd be able to do with those points?". These are what you call the narrow minded. They have been so brain washed into believing that a national University is the only way to go that it starts having a negative influence on those around them.

With my classmates Sinead and Saskia from Keepin' it Real and one of our tutors, Orla Moore.

This was my main piece of advice from the day, DO NOT take any notice of what anyone has to say to you about YOUR future. What you want to do is your business and as long as you work hard and love what you do, it will take you far. That applies to all courses! The people who tell you that you're wasting your time or anything else negative, they're just envious of the fact that they don't have the balls to pursue their own dreams. Every course is what YOU make it whether it be Art, Science, Business or Medicine. There is life after leaving cert and I'm living it. 

Do what you love, work hard and never look back. That's all I've done and it's served me well.

Much Love,

Shannon.

xoxo