"Do you regret leaving University?"

"Currently I am between jobs."

I've been job hunting recently and, to varying degrees of success, I've been attending interviews. In addition to this I've also been taking the time to speak to, and get to know, more people - seeing as how my long-term social circle for the past few years vanished recently.

A common question I've been asked in both interviews and social encounters is: "Do you regret leaving University?"

When I was making the decision it felt life alternating, I was so terrified I was going to make a mistake. Sure I hated my degree and didn't really have any friends at University, but it was still a degree and I had always been told that going through life without one was a horrible mistake. Street sweepers and garbage men were what people without degrees became and they were never going to be happy - or so the story went.

"Opportunities lost?"

So far, since leaving my course in Journalism unfinished, I have led a very interesting life. It has only been a year and a half but I have run my own business and been the editor of a globally respected website. I have flown around the world, met incredibly bright and ingenious people, some of whom I've admired since I was a child. On a shallower note: I've been treated with some bizarre respect that a posh sounding job title grants you from strangers and I've eaten in fine Michelin starred restaurants. It was all great fun... but as some of you know my unconscious had different plans.

"Crumbling edifice."

Following the breakdown of my three year relationship at the end of December and my taking up therapy at the end of January, I woke my unconscious up. It was a series of acts which I didn't quite realise the importance of, like knocking over the first domino in a chain that you didn't know existed.

I found myself unable to write, unable to sleep, and often unable to eat. What I was able to do was catch colds, flues, and minor illnesses. While I consciously wanted to continue on in my job my unconscious was staging a revolt. Around this time a series of friendships failed and I felt like my life had stagnated.

And then: I left my job.

I think I'll always be shocked at the rapidity my string of illnesses cleared up after I left. Within 24 hours I was back to being... me. I was happy, healthy and excited about the future. Which in fact seemed more like "me" than my previous experiences of "me" ever were.

"A better education."

Looking back it seems like leaving university was the smartest decision I ever made. I was sitting there, taking a journalism course I hated, wondering if I had made a huge mistake in my life plan.

So what did I do? I threw myself at the career, I gave it my best bloody shot. I started a business, I did work on the side, I volunteered for free writing gigs and then I was picked up by an established publication and put into a position which most people spend decades trying to reach... and I hated it.

I mean that's the long and short of it right? I had everything that was planned for me, by my Dad, by my sister, and by everyone who bangs on about careers and success and puts all that pressure on kids in schools, and it didn't bring me any happiness.

I only felt happiness when I took control again. Even now I'm happier than ever. I'm struggling for work, I'm unsure of my future, and I don't have anyone in my life that I haven't known for more than six months but god help me I feel happier than ever before. Especially as this gave me the impetus to pursue new friendships, rewarding and stronger in their base than anything I've had before.

I swear I think its crazy how I've been trying to avoid this knowledge.

I think a part of me wants to cling to this view that I've been abandoned by my loved ones and have failed in my career because it would keep me small and meek.

And now I feel stuck, I'm very unsure how to end this post - perhaps that's fitting given how I'm nowhere near the end of this journey. I'll keep you all posted :).