I need to do something with my life. Something that I will feel valued and appreciated. Customer service is cool, and all, but I just don't see the real redeeming value in that. I want a career path that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Something where I know that I am truly making a difference in some one's life...
I enjoy factory work, and working in call centers, but it just has no real purpose in it for me. I do not enjoy working in the medical field. I get too attached, and I think it's important to keep a safe and healthy distance from patients, so this is NOT where I'll be looking.
What I'm thinking is some sort of counseling. I have always said that if you want to counsel someone through something, you have to have been there, done that, and made it through the experience successfully to be able to help someone else. So, that leads me to the things I've successfully encountered in my lifetime. I've overcome addictions, I've placed a child - well, TWO children - for adoption with two totally different circumstances, I have been homeless, I have been a rowdy teenager with a lot of angst and self-loathing, I have been suicidal, I have been raped 3 times, I have had sever mental health issues, I have been pregnant and considered abortion just to realize that I'm too pro-life to do that, I have raised kids as a single mom, I have been unemployed and under employed, I have faced life's many obstacles, and can still wake up each day with a smile on my face, and look forward to another day and another chance to help someone else out... Does this make me crazy? Probably! But, I'll take it and turn it into a career if I can! lol.
I was also thinking about social work, but have heard so many cons about this career field. Under paid and under appreciated. I want to make a difference, but seeing as how social workers are governed by so many bureaucracies and have to follow all the proper procedures, rules, and regulations, then this may not be what I want to do.
What about therapy? Noah gets physical, occupational, and speech therapy, and I adore his therapists, and LOVE seeing the joy in their eyes as his skills improve and progress. I would love to experience this same joy each and every day with my little patients. Speech therapy would be neat, since I was born 50% deaf. But, I love the physical therapy, too. I think I might get a little more frustrated with speech therapy then I would with occupational or physical.
Then there's writing or editing. I'm a stickler for proper grammar and good spelling, and even as far back as high school, I was helping friends by editing their essays. How much school would this require, and is there a real need for editors these days? I mean, most decent PCs, websites, and MS Office have built-in spell check and even have added grammar checks, now, too! But, alas, writing is, and probably always will be, a private passion of mine. I long to be as inspired and motivated as L.M. Stull, who works a full-time job, and still has time to work on her masterpiece novel in her down time - she has no kids! lol.
And, there is one more career path I would love to follow, though not as personally rewarding as the top three, or as heavy of a passion as my fourth choice here... I LOVE DIY shows. I am a DIY fanatic. I would love to build a house from the ground up, do something constructive that starts out so destructive like a renovation project - Is Extreme Makeover Home Edition looking for new personalities to join them? lol. I love everything from building to interior design. I love that guy on TV... what's his name? Oh, yes, Bob Villa! I used to watch him in high school, and the HG TV channel, you know, back when I could afford cable! lol.
So, there you have it, folks... My top 5 career choices. Help me narrow this down. Comment on this blog, and let me know what it is YOU see me doing. Maybe you have a 6th. 7th, or even an 8th option that I haven't explored yet that you think would be more fitting? I'm open to suggestions and am also considering going back to school, too, so nothing you can say will be too far out of reach at this point. I just need some guidance, and thought to seek it from those who know me best.
I don't know Dani. I really like the idea of you being a counselor. I'm not sure that the pay is really all that great, you'd probably be appreciated more. But I think that if you're really looking to make a difference in someone's life, that'd probably be the way to go. Counselors, and other people who help others through good times and bad, are pretty amazing. You could also work on an autobiography. You could get your grammar fix and maybe someone could benefit from your story.
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