Today’s Daily Prompt post got me thinking back to when I first started getting rejected this year. I obviously wasn’t feeling overly confident or particularly keen on pushing onwards with my dream. I, however, had a close friend who had experienced the same frustration twice over and his own determination inspired me to fight for success. Since he has no idea that I’m doing this, I shall simply dub today as Lloyd Day.
Lloyd has been my best friend since the last year of senior school and, considering I left in 2008, we’ve been friends for a fairly long time. Now his dream was a little different to mine. He wanted to be a vet.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s one of the smartest people I know and he cares for animals so much, he’d do anything to save even the smallest of lives. His problem (and it was a pretty big flaw) was his disinterest in science. As he applied to university, his work experience was average and his college studies leant more towards the business world rather than the veterinary. While I was devastated for him, I could see why he hadn’t been accepted.
His gap year was, even from my point of view, insane. He spent almost every waking minute volunteering in farms and vet practices anywhere they’d take him. If somewhere said “no thanks”, he straight away went for somewhere else. There was no hesitation for him. This was what he wanted. His ridiculous amount of work experience was what got him into Nottingham University and his improvements there got him into one of the Liverpool universities the year after that.
I imagine that without his example, I would have given up, accepted the fact that I wasn’t quite good enough and fallen into management without considering my options. All I can offer in thanks is honouring him on Lloyd Day for the inspiration to carry on.
My Gap Year Adventure 