Beginner's luck

Indeed, I got hired at the opera house. I could never have guessed that my first job application ever would be so easy, but it was. I was quite nervous for the interview, but it went very smoothly - no weird questions to test my knowledge about the opera house, and even speaking French went surprisingly well after not speaking it at all for three years.

Also, my interviewers were not exactly intimidating (by which I mean nothing bad) seeing as they were two nice girls of barely a few years older than me (I would later find out that they were indeed 26 and 27 or thereabouts). I was supposed to go for a second interview with the head of department a while later, but that got cancelled and I just got hired right away. (Looking back I am glad it did get cancelled, as the head of department is actually a French lady, and it would have been a lot more stressful to have to do everything in French rather than switching between that and Dutch).

So I got hired, for a four-month period, September to December. This meant I could start my summer holidays without having to be stressed about finding a job. And of course I was very excited to find out what the opera house would be like. What is also very convenient, is that I could make the internship count for a number of ECTS for a Cutural Studies master's degree. I was not planning to really do the degree this year, but by doing the internship already, I could keep the official status of 'student', which makes things a lot easier when it comes to administration and all that jazz.

Sounds like a lot of beginner's luck all at once, right? I think so too. Must be good karma. I hope it's not all downhill from here for the rest of the year.

And so it begins

First of all, this blog comes way too late. I'm aware of that. I should have started it when I started my year-of-experiences - not five months later. Granted. I shall start it now however, if it please you.

When I was in Galway on Erasmus exchange, I was very, very happy. It took me a while to find out why exactly, but I know now: I just love new experiences. Landing in a situation where everything and everyone is new, and where you have to find your way around and discover everything for the first time, is simply the best thing on earth for me. Contradictorily, it feels like a natural habitat. So Galway was the best time of my life so far.

Quite soon, though, I also started realizing that coming back to Belgium and readopting all the old patterns and habits would be very unpleasant. A vague idea started to take root in my mind. Luckily, I voiced those vague ideas to a friend with a lot of life experience quite early. She thought the idea, however vague, was BRILLIANT (thank you Kathleen). From that moment on, the idea was no longer all that vague, and I had decided.

You need to know that in Belgium, most people consider a bachelor's and a master's degree as one single unit, not two separate things in which the second is optional. The general idea is that a bachelor's degree alone is useless and will not get you anywhere - that it is, in fact, a waste of three years of your life to do only that bachelor's degree without adding a master's. I was not aware of how strongly rooted that idea is here. Once I had made my decision, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me, and like the best decision I could ever have made.

Unfortunately, this could not be said of most other people.

Luckily I have amazing parents who have a lot of confidence in me, and who always support me to the maximum. I also have a lot of amazing friends - some who were very enthusiastic about my scheme, some who did not like it at all. Fair enough. But then there were all those other people - acquaintances, family, new people I met who, of course, would ask what I do in life. Most of those (luckily not all of them) just pretty much think that I'm out of my mind, and that it's a disgrace my parents are letting me do this. I find this odd. I never even asked my parents, I told them. I feel that by now I'm quite capable of making my own informed decisions. (Which does not lessen my gratitude to my parents for being supportive.)

Oh, well. The decision was made and doubts about my sanity are not going to make me change my mind. It was the best thing I could do for myself at this point in my life. I'd rather spend a year doing many different things to help me find out what I really want to do in life, than spend a year doing a master's degree which doesn't interest me too much at the moment and of which I have no idea if it will lead me anywhere in particular. People tell me I will never find a 'proper' job if I don't have that master's degree. They may be proven right at some point. But if so, nothing stops me from getting that degree after all. It's not like I'm embarking on some irreversible journey into the great nothing. (Also, their ideas of what a 'proper' job is might just differ from mine. Just maybe.)

One thing I know for sure is that this will never be a wasted year. I will learn so much - I am learning so much. I would even dare to argue I'm learning more, or at least things more useful, than I would when doing that inevitable master's degree.

And so it began.

PS. Comments are most welcome at any time. Telling me I'm insane is fine too.