The flag is ready, but at the moment our daughter is still in the middle of her exams. The house is full of stress and I don't get the impression that the Valdispertjes (exam fear) do much for her. For years I saw the flags with bags hanging on them and I always thought:“Aw… how nice, someone passed there again”. Now that I'm in the middle of it myself, I think very differently about it, because that flag doesn't just hang there.
“Where are my keys and where is my cellphone?” Great panic eyes look at me and I can't help but find all the things she's lost.
“I'm going to be really late, Mom,” she yells angrily. I sigh, encourage her and say a hundred thousand quick prayers when she finally rides off on her bike.
The whole family now has lame thumbs from twirling and when she finally puts on Facebook that it went "quite" well, she is liked by everyone and the thumbs go up.
At the moment we don't even know if she will pass, but we have already registered her for further education. I continue to find it strange, because my daughter is currently on a completely different matter. Besides, she has no idea what to do. When she was eight years old she wanted to become Barbie and then design bags. At the age of 12, baking cakes (together with Abel) seemed fun to her and after that becoming an actress was definitely number one. So it was all vague stuff and her interests diverged widely. Yet creative subjects clearly had her preference and we started looking in that direction.
In the end we arrived at an open day at the ROC, where people from the film academy came to tell their story. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the wrong education for her, as this was more behind the scenes. So keep looking!
A few weeks ago we went to the HKU in Utrecht, because that was it! It was a nice day and everything was fun. I too looked around me musingly and thought:“What a pity that they didn't have this in my time”. Unfortunately, our dream quickly fell apart, because the three audition days turned out to coincide with her exams and we were also told that out of the 400 people who auditioned, only 15 were accepted, of which one eventually (with a little luck) got a job. Day dream! So looking further and now for an alternative. She found it difficult to choose, but in the end we ended up at the Saxion and even if it is not her dream, she is now going to follow a training that is mainly “broad” (as it is so beautifully called these days) and with a little more certainty on a job. But what is certainty? The jobs are not up for grabs and even if you do such a nice education, you also have to have a bit of luck and sometimes a lot of patience and perseverance.
My friend went through this with her son, who had only wanted one thing since he was little:to be a pilot. Well, this is a very expensive and difficult education, but what do you do if this is your child's only dream? Then you go for it, right? His mother has therefore worked hard for years to gather some household goods and to support him financially. After a few years he finished this training and received his coveted diploma and 'Wing'. Ready to fly! But unfortunately, due to the crisis in 2008, these jobs were no longer up for grabs and he's been doing very different work for a few years now. In the meantime, frustration increased, because flying hours had to be made that he had to pay for himself. They were close to despair and just when he thought:“It will never work again”, a job of his life passed by. He gave his all and exciting times were upon us again, because when will he hear his 'date'? Mother is happy but cautious and has mixed feelings because she may have to miss her son. The job is for a foreign organization, because in the Netherlands everything is still completely locked.
No, our kids don't have it that easy, because the jobs are really not up for grabs, no matter how hard you studied. In a few days the exams will be over and we will be waiting for that one redeeming phone call. Passed or not? I do hope that we can hang out that flag for her and then we'll see again. .
