Welcome to Somethinghood

It was March 2020. My school days were finally coming to an end, I had an offer from a London university and I’d just started my new favourite hobby – drinking beer in pubs. Then there was a pandemic, and my first steps into the adult world were punctuated by masks, two-metre distancing and the rules of the most recent government press conference. 

I decided to defer my uni offer for a few reasons. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, uni in London is expensive, Media Communications is barely even a real degree and more to the point – COVID. The chaos of the pandemic transformed the world around me, and the path I had chosen no longer made sense.

I took a job in a local French restaurant for the sake of something to do, and while others experienced student halls and lectures, my late teens were set against the backdrop of the hospitality industry in Glasgow. I discovered a whole new world in the city where I grew up, and a subculture of new people, challenges and experiences that have shaped my worldview.

This grew into a pretty successful freelance career of graphic design, branding and social media at first for hospitality venues, then a whole host of clients across Glasgow. I credit this success to a foolproof strategy of agreeing to do jobs then promptly googling how to do them. This method will get you far.

It’s crazy to think about some of the things I’ve done. I’ve designed posters for bands I love, branding for businesses that are thriving, been paid in cash in the basement of an Irish bar, sold Christmas trees, served pizza, travelled to New Zealand, drunk many pints, consulted on social media strategy and most recently spent August working at the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s a winding path, but it’s built me a body of work and a range of experiences that have led to my next phase. Something that for many years I assumed I’d never do – university.

This September I’m starting at Glasgow School of Art studying Communication Design. And I’m going on purpose. I don’t knock the decision of those who went to university straight from school, but I’d gently point out that spending some time in the real world after your 13 years in full-time education may not be the worst thing. I’ve worked 40 jobs, gigs or projects in the past four years and built up life experience, tangible skills and the soft skills that are highly sought after in today’s working world. When I start at university I’ll be bringing with me all of that experience, along with the resilience built up by shifts in restaurants, where despite physical and mental exhaustion, you need to be incredibly likeable even 14 hours into a shift.

I approached the working world and life as a freelancer with the naïve, blissful optimism that comes with youth. I don’t believe it’s overconfidence, I just hadn’t experienced things going wrong that much yet and so was unaware and uninterested in why things wouldn’t work. That persistence in the face of rational thinking and common sense meant I got clients and did design work I’m really proud of – and I achieved it because I didn’t see any reason why not. I hope I cling to that, and that I don’t pick up the troubleshooting and problem-finding that can suffocate creativity.

I call these the ‘somethinghood’ years – not childhood, not adulthood but somewhere in that space.

If you’re just getting going in the real world or on the cusp of starting something new – welcome to somethinghood. It’s chaos here. It’s beautiful, soul-crushing, joyous, idiosyncratic chaos – and a necessary struggle of life as a 20-something. And you’re at an age where who you are is still forming, being clumsily written and rewritten on a daily and weekly basis.

It’s important not to romanticise these years and that chaos too much – because more often than not it will be really hard. One of the most annoying things about growing is that you’re constantly contradicting yourself and disagreeing with what you used to think. To spend so much time at odds with yourself is not comfortable or easy and it’s important to embrace that you are on a journey. Enjoy the running, because if you’re anything like me you’ll always be moving the finish line.

There’s so much change happening in my life just now – slowly unravelling in that way you don’t quite notice. In the midst of it all I’m turning inwards to what makes me most feel alive, and while I’m really proud of all that work I’ve done in the past four years, it’s not all of who I am.

Right now I crave the chaos of somethinghood. I’m drunk on it. I want to experience more and feel more and spend more time with my friends – laughing at things that should never be repeated and watching as they all run off in different directions to their own versions of success.

There’s no such thing as a right decision. Collect experiences like a magpie with tinfoil and remember that you’re not a metaphor. You’re not climbing a ladder or running a race – you are a full person and you should do what makes you feel most alive.