I don't feel robbed in the slightest. People just need to wake up that everything will not be handed to them on a plate and you need to work hard to achieve. I come from a poor background, my parents have never owned a house (still don’t) and have never earned a large amount of money. We never really went on holidays when I was a kid (except maybe to Clacton on sea every so often because my Nan used to live there... RIP) I went to the worse school within the town I grew up in and was pretty much told constantly I would never achieve anything more than working at McDonalds. My grades were not that great when I left school, not bad but nothing stand out. I think it was then I had a slight crisis moment and thought to myself I need to get my **** in gear.
So I thought hard about what I was good at and enjoyed then decided on a career path, I went to college using money I had saved up doing part time work at Sainsbury’s. While at college I worked my ass off for distinctions across the board on top of working almost full time at Sainsbury’s. I’d start college at 8:00am finished at 4:00pm then I would have a 1 hour break go to work at Sainsbury’s at 5:00pm and work until 2:00am I would do this Monday to Friday. Saturday’s and Sunday’s I would grab any overtime Sainsbury’s could offer and work that too. Any spare time I would be doing assignments and the odd meet up with friends if I could fit it in. I had to do this because my parents simply could not afford for me to go to college and support me (I was also paying them rent too). Summer holidays were spent again working at Sainsbury’s, I would do any shift work any amount of overtime they would give me.
After about 3 years of doing this I finally got into an apprenticeship scheme within the field of work I was interested in. I completed the apprenticeship and now working full time on an extremely well paid salary where I work 9-5 mon-fri. I now earn almost 3 times the amount my parents do combined. I also moved overseas which is something no one in my family has ever done before. I’m at a point in life now with all the money I have saved over the years I could buy a house “back home” in the UK almost out right. But honestly I’m still undecided if I even want to go back to the UK. I have a great lifestyle in Brussels now and money is never really a concern to me now.
That’s not to say all people in the UK are lazy, but from my experience and people I have been around while growing up have always been that. While I would be working they would be out at the clubs and drinking the night away. They would always be the show off, oh look at my new phone, look at my new car, look at my new pair of £300 jeans. I would get told I was boring and had no life except work.
This might sound like a big “oh look at me” post. But seriously it shows that opportunity is there if you put your mind to it and work hard. Every single person from my school year is now either claiming benefits or working in Tesco’s or whatever. If they are happy that’s great for them. But I am much happier saying that at the young age of 26 (27 next week
) I have travelled a fair amount of the world, I am in a job which I will most likely do for the rest of my life and I earn enough to live a very good lifestyle and still save money.
I’m not naturally gifted or smart, I just had the foresight to think of a long term goal rather than live in the short term. So while I went through absolute hell for pretty much 4-5 years while learning in my late teens it paid off.
So do I feel robbed ? no. But I certainly took advantage of the vast majority of people I was around who were just plain lazy and would just live life day by day.
