September is a new start for countless teens and twentysomethings. New classes, new courses, new jobs. For many Generation Z-ers, it’s the first taste of making what seems like a life-changing decision and then having to stand over it.

How do you know you’ve picked the right course? Should you have gone with commerce in UCC rather than drama and theatre studies at Trinity? And what will your friends think of you if you drop out after a semester?

The short answer is there’s no way of knowing if you’re about to make a mistake. But that’s okay.

To steel yourself against self-doubt, can I recommend reading James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Or, at least, one passage in particular.

Towards the end of the novel, Stephen Dedalus – a character loosely based on the young Joyce – is challenged on his decision to pursue a writing career in defiance of religious and social conventions. “You made me confess the fears that I have,” he tells a close friend. “But I will tell you also what I do not fear. I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or........

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