Unhinged: The unexpected pros of graduating in a pandemic - by Lydia Varney

What’s next? Even as I began my final year of university, the future teetered on the horizon and I swallowed away the beginnings of panic as the questions began to loom: what, exactly, do I do once this is all over? Where do I start? And where, eventually, will I end?

Of course I had absolutely no idea what was to come, no clue that a global pandemic would sweep my final semester off it’s feet and that I’d swap a studio in Leeds for the dining room table in my parent’s house. I didn’t expect to be blundering my way through digital hand-ins, dodgy internet connections and a distinct lack of… well, everything. Being locked down in what was supposed to be the best year of my life was not exactly the gameplan. However, fast forward three months and I’m starting to wonder if graduating in the infamous COVID-19 class might have been a very well disguised blessing after all.

I am surely not alone in looking enviously upon all those whose careers seem mapped out for them; arriving at university, I almost instantly regretted my decision to study a creative subject (and fashion, of all things). I craved certainty, and I silently dreaded the day that university ended and I was somehow supposed to have a plan in action. The pressure of ‘making it’ was wedged in the back of my mind, and my top priority pre-COVID was, in honesty, looking the part. I wanted to be a successful, employable, fashion graduate, and the fine print didn’t really matter. In short, my personal values were less important than avoiding the inevitable ‘failure’ of being unemployed.

Then, of course, the pandemic changed everything. It freed me from all expectations; no longer was I met with intrusive strangers asking me what was next, but instead, I was unhinged. In fashion, there’s a certain snobbery that suggests if your first job isn’t directly in the industry, you’ll probably never get there. Pre-COVID, I never would have considered using my creative skills for anything but designing clothes. But now, flexibility is more valuable than a set-in-stone plan. The jobs we expected to find are gone, but instead, there are new opportunities we would never have even looked for before. Suddenly, I’m not worrying about impressing other people; I am free to try new things, explore new options and whilst the odds are against me, right now simply turning up and trying is enough.

Thanks to the pandemic, I have been given an opportunity to find my purpose without the pressure to ‘succeed’, whatever that meant anyway. I have learnt, already, that the motive behind a company matters more to me than the industry. It is not enough to work for a company that simply turns a profit - I want to be in an environment that values our planet, and the people in it too. I did not think I would enjoy working outside the realm of clothing and colour schemes; but now I see that my skills are valuable elsewhere, if not more so. I am no longer afraid of being unemployed; I would be in good company after all. I will not settle for a dead-end job just to fit the ‘successful graduate’ mould. Instead, I will take all the opportunities I can get, explore all the avenues that I can find, and I will use this time to work out what I really love - unhinged.

By Lydia Varney