blueprints

These are uncertain times.

This is the grey zone between university and life. Some of the more switched on among us saw this day coming and have for years been building up their CVs, applying for jobs and rigorously pursuing employable skills. Some have even been buying property with an eye to the future! I was not one of them and now I have a bit of making up to do.

Over the last few months my future plans have slowly (far too slowly) been falling into place and I think now is the time to present them, as flawed and incomplete as they maybe. If this route turns out to be a dead end or doesn't produce the dividends I hope it will, then it matters little. With a spot of luck we will all live to a ripe old age and we can each hope to enjoy a handful of different careers. World economic collapse aside I certainly hope and expect to be economically buoyant enough throughout my life to comfortably switch paths multiple times, regardless of any home owning or family commitments. This may turn out to be a flawed assumption and reality may yet hit harder then I expect – but it is an optimistic note on which to embark the journey.

I have come to realise how the mental static of uncertainty can paralyse my system, how it can force me to stay in bed and to turn away from the world. And so some future guidelines are required to help combat that sinking feeling of hopelessness. Accurate or not, having some fixed reference points should prove incredibly useful. So as mechanical and heartless as it may seem I will now set out the framework for my next four years. Please remember this is for my career ambitions and personal interests only. My private life does not appear here and by its very nature could never be segregated into a year-by-year plan (I'm not that cold).

2008/2009: To get an office job. The past few months have taught me that you are effectively worthless without "office experience" and while I strongly disagree with that statement it is the game that I must play. Once I've broken into the world of office jobs it will be a heck of a lot easier to advance and will provide me with a more employable portfolio. To complete my MTO training. The Navy Reserves have been fantastic to me so far and I am desperate to complete my specialisation training and enjoy the skills, experience, friends and confidence that will come with it. To set and meet demanding physical targets. Raleigh was my motivation for getting fit, and now having achieved a modest level of physical competence I need to continue to set goals to push myself. My next one is to complete the Edinburgh ¼ marathon in May. To begin writing regular essays. Believe it or not I studied history at degree level because I absolutely love it. The prospect of one day embarking on another Masters degree or even on a PhD fills me with excitement and I would be lying if I told you that I didn't see 'history professor' as being one of my many career ambitions. Therefore the regular reading and writing up on issues that interest me should keep me sharp. History will finally become my hobby, which is perhaps where it should have been all along. Obtain teaching experience. As the next year will reveal there is a strong need for me to secure as much voluntary teaching work as possible. To begin learning French. I see learning a language as a huge time commitment that will not be achieved over night, but is something I should begin now (I have already been attending evening classes).

2009/2010: Complete a teaching course. Whether it be primary of secondary teaching I have yet to decide, and hopefully the teaching experience I will do will assist in that decision. I would like to do this teaching qualification in Scotland, either here in Edinburgh or possibly across in Glasgow. Although I am leaning towards Glasgow. Having this qualification should set me up nicely with an employable backbone that I can take with me anywhere in the world. Whether I end up in China, Canada or Ipswich I will have a skill that I can fall back on to secure a reliable income. Complete my AB1 training. This involves taking all the weapon handling and sea survival courses necessary to qualify myself for immediate deployment with the Reserves. To continue pursing previously mentioned interests.

2010/2011: Spend a full year teaching as a NQT. Every Newly Qualified Teacher has to spend a year on probation and that is what I will need to aim to complete during this time. To continue pursing previously mentioned interests.

2011/2012: A tour of active duty. At the end of my NQT year I will be a fully qualified teacher so it would make sense for me to use this landmark to take a break from that career and offer up six months or so to the Royal Navy. The Reserves are excellent at finding willing volunteers some active duty, and I will obviously serve wherever I am needed for anything up to a year. To be confident in conversational French. I've given myself four years by this point, more than enough to have learnt the rotten tongue. Move abroad. This is the big one that I have been building up to. North America beckons or maybe somewhere in Europe. I simply refuse to spend my entire life living in Britain. My teaching qualification will enable me to put down roots anywhere – or maybe I could use it as a means of travel, taking up teaching posts for six months at a time as I move around the world. Who knows. Obviously my private life will have a large role to play here, but I tend to go for the more international girls but if at this point I am anchored to a native then she'll just have to either come with me or lump it.

So there you have it, a blueprint for my life up until the age of 27. Cold, brutal and calculating. It is perhaps odd that I would be so open and methodical about my plans but I hope you can understand why it helps to have a mental framework in place. Of course it takes only a matter of seconds for events to change your life forever, but being unable to account for such occurrences I think this is a good start.

I best get cracking.