Choosing the university: three things nobody tells you

In July it will be exactly ten years since my graduation exam. Ten years since I said goodbye to my counter in the third row, ten years since I stopped waiting for September just to buy the Smemoranda, ten years since I first asked myself “What now?”

I immediately understood that I wanted to continue studying, but choosing the university was a completely different story. For one who consults the menu for half an hour (to then always order the same pizza), deciding which faculty to enroll in was not exactly a walk. To make the situation even worse, the articles scattered around the web thought about it, giving me suggestions such as “Choose something you are passionate about, but also take into account possible career opportunities”. A piece of advice that, however pragmatic and common sense, I don’t think has ever helped anyone * and whose only possible answer is a polite: thanks to the cock.

In hindsight, here are some things I wish I had known while choosing university:

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE HELL IS DOING.

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If you could have a chat with me from ten years ago, this is definitely the first thing. that I would let you know. Indeed, perhaps not quite the first: I would prevent her from cutting her hair like that. ridiculous, getting your eyebrows too thin and putting on low-rise jeans, to begin with. But right after I would tell you that it is perfectly normal not to be able to answer the fateful question “What do you want to do when you grow up?”.

As long as you are small it’s easy – astronaut one day, ballerin * the next, and the next day you dream of becoming a rock star – but things get complicated when it’s time to really decide what you want to do with your life. It doesn’t help to convince yourself that you’re the only one who doesn’t have clear ideas about it: being logarat * from uncertainty while other people around you show off their self-confidence is a great way to feel inadequate shit. But I’ll tell you a secret: they’re all pretending. At eighteen no one * really knows what the hell he’s doing. And maybe not even at thirty, to be honest.

YOUR LIFE DOES NOT DEPEND ON THIS

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It is never easy to make important decisions, and choosing which university faculty to attend is fully among them. In short, it is your future that you are talking about – not pizza and figs – and I challenge anyone not to panic. Well, take a deep breath and relax your shoulders, because your life doesn’t depend on it. I’m not suggesting you take this lightly, just remember that you are not about to sign an irreversible blood pact. You are allowed to make mistakes. You can change your mind. You always have time to turn everything upside down. And there’s a good chance you’ll end up in a job that has nothing to do with what you’ve studied.

IT IS NOT ALL A QUESTION OF CFU.

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At university, you have to get your ass off. If you are about to finish high school and are about to start your career in the magical world of academia, I am sure this concept is not new to you. Thanks to older teachers, relatives and friends * who warn you (or who maybe just enjoy frightening you) you have already realized that the 12 CFU exams will make you regret even your maths homework or first-hour questions. .

But yet, no one ever says college is cool too. During those years I studied hard, yet I remember nothing of the 500-page books on which I shed tears, sweat and blood. On the other hand I remember the aperitifs and parties, the friendships born in front of the coffee machine, the Erasmus, the improvised lunches with all different dishes and the glasses rigorously stolen in the various bars of the city. The exam session is a tough enemy that you will only get the better of with commitment and perseverance, but there is also much, much more. Maybe knowing it could help you enroll in a different spirit, a little less as if you were heading to the gallows and a little more as if you were preparing to face a beautiful adventure.