Did your parents tell you that you could achieve anything?
People sometimes say there weren't that many choices when they were growing up. But my parents said I could do whatever I wanted to do. (Isn't that a good thing? I wish all parents would say that! But I digress...)
Some of my dream job ideas when I was growing up
I did consider some unusual choices for a job, like scientist, inventor, time traveler, treasure hunter, etc. but usually came back to my Serious List of journalist, writer, artist, environmentalist, or teacher (among others).
Fate steered me in another direction altogether.
Events seemed to derail my plans of staying in school, so instead of going on past my B.A. to get trained for something (I had an English degree because I had to graduate finally and had more credits in this...) I then got a "Job job".
What is a "Job job"?
You know what this is; it's the real kind of job where you work full time and support yourself. You start at the bottom and work your way up. You learn all the basics from people who are there already, then learn all you can. If you are lucky, you move on to learn more and get an even better position.
I did learn many things and moved into several responsible positions, including Assistant Manager at a small printshop. Then later I moved into a job at a larger firm, becoming a graphic artist and proofreader there.
Sometimes people move backwards at their job instead of forwards.
It's when I began being regularly assigned the entry-level kinds of things I did when I first started out that I first knew I should go back to school. I was back where I started, going backwards instead of learning new things. It was just a matter of time, I decided.
I do like to learn new things. Luckily, going backwards was not something I had to do for long.
Even though I had taught myself computing from the ground up, all kinds of computer programs, scheduling, design, etc. in the printing trade, it seemed as though my age and lack of certification finally did me in and I was laid off. Perhaps I should have gone back to school a lot earlier, I thought.
Since my grandmother had been a teacher, I thought that doing that might be fun too. I had both English and Art to pick from, and I picked English, thinking that would have more jobs available.
Now after going through school again, my dream list has changed.
I learned so much going back to school. Now I have a brand new list of What I Want to Be When I Grow Up. It turns out being a writer can apply to somebody who has a blog. Who knew? And now I can be published so much easier than ever before. I have already done 2 (free) books and plan to polish them up and add to them for a pay version this or next year.
I also learned that even though things don't always go my way, I can always choose a new path. Am I grown up yet? That's a good question. In one sense, being responsible, I can say yes, I am.
I don't like to be stuck in a job I don't like. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this.
I don't think it's part of growing up to feel that you must be unhappy to be a grownup. I do not think that being grown up means being stuck to one dream, or (worse) being stuck in somebody else's dream. I hope you are not in that position, because I know how it feels to be stuck.
Personally, I now have more than one dream, as always. But now my dreams about my "perfect job" have changed. I think this is part of growing as a person, no matter what your age is.
Here are some questions for you, my reader, to answer.
My questions to my readers today are these: What are or were YOUR dreams? What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you change your mind later? Will you go back to school to try and realize one or more of them?
Tell me why you feel as you do.
I really look forward to reading my comments!
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| Former Nontraditional Stude |
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