Just A Query

Hello

After giving up on studies, I travelled around Australia at the age of 20. But 18 months after returning, I'm incredibly bored and plain uninterested in getting a job in my hometown. Relationships aren't the same as they were before, and I feel like a loner with nowhere to go and nothing to do. I'm desperate to move to Spain to learn the language, soak up the culture and hopefully improve my career and life prospects along the way. I am doing neither stuck here at home. The problem I have is that although I consider myself to be a bright boy, I only have qualifications up to AS Levels in the UK. My aptitude for learning is good, and my ability to throw myself into a new culture is good too, and if I am settled I have no worries about making friends. But I have never found what I want to do. I am continually frustrated by this. I was wondering how easy it would be for me to get a job in Spain, particularly Madrid or the Basque region. I have lots of skills just no degree which I feel may hinder my chances considering I don't speak the language. I am wondering whether you could be of help to suggest some ideas for me to look into further. I'm desperate to succeed but don't feel like I belong in my home country any longer.

Yours

Matthew (Wales)

You dropped out of studies and you consider yourself a bright boy?

Degrees really do open up doors, even much later on, so perhaps you should think about that?

no degree, no Spanish - no well paid work - the same all over the world -

Take a year of Spanish. Comute to Spain a la cheap airline. Ask there.

In the states theres an old test from the '50s. They still use it. It tells what career path we'd be HAPPIEST IN.

The Kuter Preference Test. gives code numbers. They look up the various scores, and talk about it with us.

Just because you have a digree, in a certain field, doesn't mean you have to have that job type. My granpa hated every day of being a lawyer.

We change fields of business about five times through life.

Gramps felt trapped and obligated. In Spain, they say, "I'd rather be happy than rich."

Get into the Art Department at uni. Honest people.
I worked in the Audio Visual Dept. at uni. I kept films running all the time. Its paid off big time.

Some jobs you just don't do for the money.

You're 20 and don't know what you want to do with your life. So what's new? You and the majority of other 20 year olds.

If you're a 'bright boy' you should know that as well as how likely it is you could get any kind of decent job in Spain with no education/skills and not speaking Spanish.

Get a job at home or get back to school.

I suggest kids should bp Europe slowly, after thier first year of uni. That gives them exposure to wider horizons than home and one town.

The journeyman bp could show them other ways of seeing things And the fact that the world has changed and existed for longer than we'd heard. Europe has been through it all!

www.popperslist.com
Documentaries on world history.

Matthew, you are talking about the human condition, dear friend - alienated, lonely, despairing...and these are just the good times. Trust me, life is downhill from twenty onwards.
Seriously, your options are rather limited without a degree, and the feelings you experience in Wales are probably going to follow you to foreign fields. Seneca: "It is not a change of climate you need it is a change of heart."
That said, maybe you do need to get out into the world and flap your wings a bit before deciding on your true path/vocation. So perhaps, you could try a kibbutzim in Israel, or a work visa scheme in Canada or New Zealand? Failing that, you could head up to Spain in the summer and find work in one of the resorts.
On a logical note, maybe you need to sit down and really think what you want to do with your life and then decide how you are going to achieve it. For example, any degree will enable you to teach English in Spain or even latin America. As you admitted yourself, you don't know what you want to do therefore any rush-of- the- blood foreign escapade will probably result in not very much. n.b. How can you find the answer when you don't even know the question? And I am not talking about a vague dream of giggling senoritas whilst glugging vino - very applaudable no doubt, but even that grows old after a while - a long 'while' but it does grow old.
Matthew, finally I would agree, you are indeed "bright boy" that you are in the process of searching for your role in life - as you know, most of your contempories are more interested in Big Brother and if Posh is pregnant or not. But, celebrate your difference, don't run away physically or mentally until you have a game plan.
Sorry, I do not mean to come across as patronising or belittling because I have made many mistakes myself [oh, gawd, let's not go there] but I have learned from them - they are the greatest teachers.
Good luck.

Well I agree with just about everything but the part about things being downhill later -in my experience if you have paved the way by doing the time -getting a degree and hopping through those hoops, life really opens up. As it stands you are locking yourself out from many options. Life is all about having options. Get your ass back in school and accomplish a basic degree of study.

Matthew, you have A/S levels that denote approximately half Advanced [A] Levels - as you know, you need to complete them before you can read for any degree at university. How about going to a local college part-time including some Sapnish study, and, if you are so inclined you could do some part-time work that will give you the skills to enable you to travel? Bar work? Waiter work? The magic of university life is that you get long holidays so you can travel then.
To be honest, all of my travelling before the age of 25 was one long pub crawl, me trying to act like Indiana Jones in the hostels to impress [failing!] the Swedish girls in the corner, I had no idea about the history or cultures of the places I was visiting. Good fun [for me not the Swedish girls] but, in retrospect, it would have been more prudent for me to live a little first, get an idea about myself and my place in this world then don my travel travel boots.
I don't mean to pour water on your parade, but there's my experience for what it's worth.

I can't join the chorus of advocates for getting that degree here; it's a sensible idea, but I'd be a hypocrite. With no degree and a true dilettante's CV, I had to work for a few years more than you before I could afford to stop placating myself with long holidays and move overseas. The restlessness didn't end there; being rootless and bound up in constant limbo with immigration laws and limited opportunities occasionally gnawed at the thrill and romance of it all. But while I was sorting out what shape and direction I wanted things to take, I did all kinds of interesting work, picked up a few more skills, made myself look a lot wordlier on paper, went to some amazing places, and, most importantly, had enough time to spend trying out different ways of life to figure out which one made me happy. It's certainly not what I would have imagined at 22.

The glass-half-full for you: your position is utterly enviable. You're young, healthy, young, smart, and - yes- young. You know how to enjoy being alone, and you're not afraid to travel. You're a UK citizen under 30 and thus able to legally work in a greater number of countries than anyone else on earth. You have no career responsibilities holding you back from experimenting with any line of work you please, and no external pressure against pursuing whatever field of further study interests you if you're inclined. You seem to have no kids to support, no nagging spouse, and probably not a lot of burden in the material world. You probably don't even have student debts to pay off. Whatever money you can save up at home is actually worth something anywhere you could go.

All in all, you have about as much freedom to do what you please as is humanly possible, more than you'll ever have again for the rest of your life, limited only to your imagination. And you're moping? Stop that! You want to get out of Wales? Pack your bag and go. Go to Spain for awhile and keep on going, work for room and board or sling beers if you have to, live cheaply and simply, try out all the things you've ever wanted to and some you've never thought of, learn a few languages, be kind and open to everyone you meet, have lots of sex, drink lots of wine, spend lots of time out in the sun, and keep yourself in love with life. You'll eventually get older and find more pleasure in stability and routine, but while you're this young it's completely wasted on you.

...it's pretty hard to waste any years up to 35 or thereabouts...even time spent daydreaming is well spent...up til the money making time kicks in

None of this advice has been wasted because every response has made me take notice. I greatly appreciate your time. The things that make me happy right now are girls, work and independence...here I am achieving none of the above. I tried to settle down on returning home and have been stuck as a consequence. As a wise man said in this thread "Mistakes are the best teachers" - that is such a good quote. I've been worried about doing something to transform me from a naieve boy into a good man, but I am a good person already! Fate will take care of me. I've just got to think on my feet a little better. It is a crime to not enjoy myself at this age. And a crime to get stuck. Thankyou very much.

"Relationships aren't the same as they were before, and I feel like a loner with nowhere to go and nothing to do."

Perhaps you need to plan a change of location - it isn't necessary to move abroad to do that. I've read posts on this forum which hint that people who don't feel happy in one place won't feel happy in any. This isn't entirely true - people often blame their circumstances rather than themselves, but if you dont feel at home in a place it is worth thinking about where you may fit in better. I can imagine that job prospects are pretty limited in many areas of Wales - I gew up in an area of Northen England with few opportunities. Leaving was the best thing I did - I was able to meet more positive people and find meaningful work. If you think about the bright people you knew at school what are they doing now?

"I'm desperate to move to Spain to learn the language, soak up the culture and hopefully improve my career and life prospects along the way. I am doing neither stuck here at home."

If you are keen to learn Spanish and about the culture why are you doing neither at present? Can't you borrow a Spanish Linguaphone from the library and get hold of a few books about Spanish history? Set yourself a target for learning words and phrases?

Why do you think that learning Spanish will improve your career prospects? Believe me, there are very few jobs for which knowing a (single) language will open doors with no other skills to offer. Why not complete your 'a' levels - perhaps including Spanish, and preferably with the sort of subjects that will increase your skills base. Maths for example develops the sort of skills which as a 'bright boy' you would find of use in many circumstances. If you have 'lots of skills' you would be able to find a decent job with or without a degree. What skills have you thought about acquiring to give you a better chance of a decdent job either here or abroad?

If you think the lack of a degree is a problem can't you find one that includes a year in Spain?