University

I'm a senior in high school and now I have to make a huge decision. Should I go to university or should I do something else?
Until my first year in high school I thought university was for know-it-all's. Admitted I act like a know-it-all most of the time and I get pretty good grades. But when I all comes down to it, I'm not really that clever. But then I talked to a person and I realized that you don't have to be one of those really clever persons to go to university.
I don't know much about the Danish school system after the municipal primary and lower secondary school, because my parents only had the obligatory 10 years in school. After that they found a job and have worked ever since. Now.. You need an education to get a job. Well.. You can get some kind of job, but it's very hard without an education. And because my parent never went to high school or university I'm pretty much on my own when it comes to school. Of course my parents will come with some sort of advice, but their way of helping me is limited. My parents advice usually goes like this: "It's your life and you should do what you want to do, it is not our decision to make and we know you'll choose what's best for you. So choose what you feel is best for you and not everybody else." And sure it helps a little, but when you're as confused as I am it would be nice to have some help with it. Parents that could say: "If you choose this it'll be lots of reading and just sitting in a class room for five years, can you handle that? If not, then you shouldn't choose it."
I know my dream is to be a writer and I know I want to go to university and I also know what I should choose to push me toward my dream, but what I don't know is: Can it help me if I don't reach my dream? Can I get some kind of job if I don't succeed? Maybe I shouldn't ask or think about things like that now, but I'd like to know. I'd like to be reassured that I won't end up like my parents and they'll be proud of me because I did what they didn't. I'm afraid of what will happen me if I choose this and regret it once I'm done.
And even though it sound like I think about this all the time.. I actually don't. Which is my biggest reason to doubt my decision. I hear some of my classmates talk about how they're taking a year off to work and then study whatever they want and then work with this or that, or they talk about how much they're looking forward to university.. And I doubt myself. I don't really think about how much I want to go university or what I'm going to do after. This is why I sometimes think I should choose somethings else. Do I really want this as bad as I think I do when I don't think about it as much as everyone else does about what they've chosen? I know there's about 5 or 4 months until I have to decide, but I'm just confused and torn apart.. And I feel more confused and torn apart everyday.
I hope my sister will have an easier time in high school and after. She's at least got me to help her. Maybe she'll avoid some of the problems I've had through out high school and I'm having now. I know I'll be giving this process a lot of thought so I can help her, because for me the advice: "Do what you want! Choose whatever you want and don't think about possible jobs now" seems like a crappy advice to me. I know how hard my parents have it. How hard they work to get food on the table and how years of working crappy jobs are ruining them. I don't want to end up like that and I know that my parents don't want that either.

I'll stop my rant about my confusion now with a question for you readers, and I hope you'll answer it. What would your advice be? How would you help your sister/brother/friend/or whatever if they were confused about what to do?

A boggart.

Afraid. To be afraid.

We all have something we are afraid of. We all fear something. Some things more than others. Some fear spiders and some fear death.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban J.K. Rowling introduces the world for a creature called a Boggart. A boggart lives in closets and other places where it is dark and it can be hidden. No one knows how it actually looks like, since it takes the look of ones biggest fear when one sees it. I asked one of my close friends what a boggart would turn into if she saw one. A rat she said. She then asked me what my boggart would turn into.

That is something I really don't know. I'm afraid of a lot of things. Not spiders, not death nor heights.. I'm a little afraid of snakes and little girls laughter. But my biggest fear is the things I come up with when I am alone. When I am alone, be it either in my bed or when my friends have gone home, I can convince myself that there is someone in the room looking at me, someone starring at me through the window - which is impossible, unless they have a very big latter - I can actually convince myself of the most awful things. And it's not because I like being afraid or because I think these are happening. I hate being afraid.

So what will my boggart turn into? I don't know. I really don't. I think that I am afraid of fear itself. I am afraid of things that's not there or doesn't exist. That's pretty hard to turn into right?

So my question to all of you reading this. What would a boggart turn into if you saw it and how would you defeat it? Remember laughter is the only thing that makes it go away, so make your fear funny.