DPS draft article

Sophie, aged 18, talks about how she feels about the university prices going up, what this meant for her future and how her ambitions to be big in the music world were rapidly changed due politics.

My dreams were crushed when I found out about the rise in university prices, I was unsure about what the future would hold but fighting for my career is something that will never end. The university prices rising was an idea by the government that I, with millions of other people, disagreed with, my reasons for the fact that my ambition to be big in the music business was very much reliant on being able to rise in the music university. The music university was my dream since I was little, and to think that I wouldn’t be able to afford that was awful, depressing and something that would seriously stop and make me reevaluate my options.
After thinking about the future, I found myself in the middle of London, outside the parliament buildings, holding a sign with the words ‘don’t crush our dreams’ on, if the prices were going to rise, I had to at least join everyone else and try to make an effort to change the members of parliaments minds. I mean, they had to listen to our views before making permanent decisions, right? You, yourself may have protested or made some sort of effort to make your point, then again, perhaps you aren’t that bothered about going to university or about the people who with the rise in cost, couldn’t ever have the chance to get a further education. Money can hold so many potential successors back, including what I like to think my band is, something that will make a huge difference to the world.
When the protests created trouble with the police, I thought, s***, maybe we have pushed things too far, or perhaps we might get some attention now. But the risk was too much, after one of my band members, Chris, admitted that his parents wouldn’t be able to help him with money for uni, and he didn’t have a job, this changed things for me, because I knew to an extent that my job would pay for half of funds whilst my parents would back me up for my career. I started wanting to make a difference, so, being the loud, bubbly person that I am, I started my own protest. I stood in the centre of my high school common room, and yelled out a speech that was completely spontaneous, but I meant every word, if people my age listened and did something, maybe we’d overthrow the idea.
I even sent letters to parliament, explaining how they were being c***’s, people needed a future, and they were restricting the potential. I tried my best not to be abusive, or they would see me as just another teenager, the stereo-type being against us, the ordinary mainstream adult didn’t seem to care about our opinions at all. Of course, there was the occasional adults who were just as furious as we were. The parliament probably didn’t even bother reading my letter, they knew what would have been said, so I tried to organise a protest for the last day that we would get, the day before the final decision would be made. There were loads of us marching, shouting out for hours. I thought about the future that night, It was hard enough to get into the music business as it was, without the help of the uni, id be screwed.
Most of the focus of our band, ‘The Trick’, was university-based gig work; we had been to what felt like hundreds of gigs at loads of Uni’s across England, our target audience was most definitely university students. This also, would affect our career, perhaps the university students would stop coming to our gigs because it was wasting their money that they now, would see precious or maybe our music would be a perfect escape to their even more hardening lives.
The result, being that the university prices rose, was not really a surprise; I think we all knew that they would in the end. Our band had a group discussion about what this meant for us as university was waiting for us in only a few months at this point. Chris stressed that he’d never be able to go to the university we all wanted to go to, the music one that had turned the smallest of bands dreams to reality. I decided to write to the university, express the problem that we had with Chris, and also the struggle we’d have ourselves, along with a cd with all ‘The Trick’s tracks, hoping they’d recognise potential.
Waiting was the hardest thing I have ever done, the suspense was killing me, what was in store for me, and my band, would we make it? Or would we be struggling until something stupid like ‘X Factor’ gave us our dream. The answer being, the university wrote me back, explained the prices they’d expect, they were a lot less than we all thought and Chris could afford them, we all could, I was so excited. The university had described to me how amazing they thought our band was, and that they would help us get that record contract we all desired.
Now, my future is set, our band is successfully touring in universities and a range of cities and towns around the UK. The music university I am at is helping us all develop our skills we already possess to be big in the UK and hopefully we’ll be really well known soon. I think we can all try and overcome the rise in university prices and aim to achieve what we always wanted, just like I have.