When I Grow Up

I suppose I should discuss me, since you are reading my blog. As I've said, I'm 26. In a lot of ways, I'm a quintessential Sagittarius-honest, optimistic, lively, etc. There's a site called saggitariustraits.com, and this is what most suits me, and what I've been thinking about lately: "Their energy always saves them from misery because by the time they realize they failed, there is already a new adventure planned."

I think most people can look back on their childhood and remember wanting to be a dozen different things-a doctor, musician, actor, veterinarian, and the list goes on. I can't decide if I'm like many people in my generation or unique in the fact that I've cycled through the list of "what I want to be when I grow up" about a dozen more times in my twenties. I'm not sure if it's because I'm sort of flighty by nature or just the realization that making a living, even with a college degree, is almost an unattainable dream in this economy.

When I was a freshman in high school, I took a career aptitude test and when the computer generated "People Helper-Psychologist" as my top match, I thought that was a perfect fit. Almost everyone I know has always done more than confide in me; they usually expect me to hold a magical statement or solution for whatever ails them, and more often than not I have one of those at the ready. I spent the rest of my high school career searching for schools with good psych programs. When I received my acceptance letter from a great all-girl private school, things started to spiral downward. My life was full of turmoil and I slipped into depression after someone I thought was a close friend sexually assaulted me, and I only made it through a week and a half of college before I dropped out. I went to therapy and tried to go to school the next semester, but by then everyone at this small school had forged bonds and I was an outsider. I dropped out after 2 weeks into that semester, and took a break while I tried to get my life back on track. 

Fast forward two years later, B was born. His father was not in the picture (that's a fun story for another time ladies and gents!) and I didn't want to leave my son in daycare with strangers, so I tried a transcription class. I thought being able to do school from home, and then work from home, was a fabulous idea, but I ended up hating the thought of doing nothing but listening to doctors with different accents all day and trying to understand their writing (why is it that doctors have the worst handwriting? Is it a prerequisite on the grad school application?).

Psychology major? Nope.

Transcription? Yeah right.

So then yours truly gets her heart set on social work. I had my life changed by a social worker during my lowest point, so I wanted to be like her. Plus the community college offered most of the pre-reqs as online courses-bonus! I did 2 semesters and aced all my classes. I finally felt like I found my niche, but if you haven't noticed by now things in my life don't exactly take a normal path! M enlisted in the Coast Guard and we were relocated to a beautiful coastal town in North Carolina. It was like living in our own little piece of heaven! I began the process of transferring my credits and enrolling in classes at the community college, but lo and behold, the Coast Guard had other plans! M was sent to "A school" where he learned his trade and we were sent to Oregon before the semester began.

I had two more great semesters in Oregon but M didn't have such an easy time at the station here. He had to recover 3 bodies in a 2 month span, one of them being an 8 year old girl. That coupled with the stress of becoming qualified on 3 boats, boarding officer, and engineer petty officer sort of broke M. He ended up being prescribed anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds, and getting discharged for "failure to adjust". All this means we're moving back to Massachusetts in 2 days and I get to start over (oh, and I'm 4 months pregnant)!

SO, I've once again changed my mind but I think I've got it right this time. I've decided when I grow up I want to be a nurse! The community college in MA has a 9 month LPN program and my sister C wants to enroll in the program with me. Hopefully getting an LPN license will be enough to get a job in this economy, I'll be able to help people (bringing me full circle back to my career aptitude results), and I can take another 9 month program that bridges the gap from LPN->RN soon after.

I think I should start taking bets as to when my career goal will change again.

Yours,
-S