Bear with me as this will be a slightly rambling style post.
In March 2022 I left my Computer Science Degree at Lincoln College. It was a decision I agonised over for a long time, but I eventually decided it was the right decision. But did I make the right choice? Over this and my next post I will discuss what I regret about quitting, and what I don’t regret abut quitting.
First off, I was near the end. I was in March of my third year. That might sound stupid to quit that late, but I did have another yet to go. You see I’d split my final year into two part time years, mostly to help juggle my workload along with some health difficulties I had. But still, I’d completed one module that year (Mobile Application Development) and had started another (Cloud Computing) and halfway through my final module that year (Artificial Intelligence). Relatively speaking I was so close to the end. And I quit.
Secondly, I miss the people. My lecturers were great (special shout out to Dan Rogers, Stephen Smith, Stephen Trevor, Jeremy Davis and John Rogers). And the other people on the course were so friendly and helpful (special shout out to Ben here, who I’m still in touch with). I got on well with virtually everyone on the course and miss them all.
The final reason I regret quitting my degree is I personally put a lot of stock in my own academic achievements. Other peoples? Not so much, I accept academics aren’t for everyone. But for my own? I place great value on them. I was always one of the smarter kids in school and put all my worth in my academic achievements. So to not have a degree (especially when I once had dreams of doing a PhD) is something I’ve had a lot of difficulty coming to terms with.
Do I overall regret quitting my degree? Sometimes. But not all the time, and the next blog post will discuss the reasons I DON’T regret quitting my degree.