Thursday, February 28, 2013

When I Grow Up

Tory and I were watching PBS' Dinosaur Train the other day and I remembered my childhood aspiration to be an archaeologist when I grew up. When I was little, we'd visit the local Children's Museum and there was a dinosaur fossil table kids could dig and find fossils (which in hindsight I realize was likley sand and rocks). Of course, I never grew up to be an archaeologist because math and science are not my bag, but it got me thinking about what I want to do when my career as a stay-at-home-ends.

Financially permitting, I plan to be a stay-at-home-mom for several more years, so it's not like this decision is pressing by any means. I'd like to have the opportunity to raise my kids at home until the youngest child enters school full-time. Then I envision myself re-joining the work force. With all this contemplation, I realized I'll have the unique opportunity to reinvent myself and start down a completely new career path if I choose. 

As a (future) 40-something woman... what do I want to be when I grow up (again)?

If I had to decide today, I don't think I'd go back into Marketing. Strange, I know, because it comes to me like second nature. There's little math involved (which is good because I stink at it) and the only science is the skill of bull-shitting. Ha! I like to write, so I could do something similar to my old job where I wrote many internal reports and publications. For some reason though, that sounds as exciting as watching paint dry.

In recent years, I've developed an interest in the environment and as my past employer's sustainability leader, I have some experience influencing the corporate world in this area. Andi often says I should be an environmental consultant and then I could work from home/set my own hours/projects base, but I don't know.... I'd definitely need to go back to school and obtain some sort of degree in sustainability.

Having recently experienced pregnancy and child birth, working as a Labor and Delivery Nurse sounds intriguing. There's the part about math and science which would be needed to get the degree to do the job, so that's likely a big fat NO. As amazing as helping parents through the life-changing experience of having a baby sounds, I also imagine it would be a pretty tough job to assist families who don't show great care for their babies or worse, the event of infant death or tragedy.

I also think Massage Therapy sounds interesting, but I know my husband would say I give the worst massages in the world. Also, touching icky people would be ... icky.

I'd love to become a Graphic Designer and have the ability to use my creative side with my Marketing background. I don't think I'd want to work for an advertising agency, but maybe a company where I'd design internal pieces like brochures, flyers, etc. On a personal side, it'd be nice to have design skills to use on party invites and household projects.  

When I was little, I also wanted to be a Meteorologist. Again with the math and science thing ... so, probably not.

Sometimes, I think I want a mind-less job where I could just show up, do the work and come home without feeling like work was following me. Wouldn't it be nice to report to work at 8:00am and punch out at 5:00pm, leaving it all behind? Then again, I wouldn't have the flexibility of my past jobs where I could leave work early for appointments or come in later when needed. I guess there's benefits to jobs in both worlds.

It feels crazy to have this "pause" in my career to care for my kid(s). I love what I'm doing today, but I can't help but wonder what's in store for tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. This is so interesting to me, likely because I am a Career Counselor :) It is mind boggling to me sometimes to even start to fathom all the career choices that are available to us - when I'm talking to CLA students, it's hard to even know where to begin, because there are just SO MANY OPTIONS, and if you're a smart person who can write and speak well? You can do so many different things, in so many different environments. It might be helpful for you to start to try out a few different things that are interesting to you while you are still staying at home on a volunteer basis. I know you have very supportive and available in-laws, so potentially a few hours each week at some point you could "try on" some of these fields in a volunteer setting.

    You mentioned being a Labor & Delivery nurse but not wanting to go through the RN program - you could consider something like being a doula, or a child life specialist, or a parent educator (like running the childbirth classes). Just some more ideas :)

    It's so fun to think of where we'll be in 5, 10, 20 years... when I think that I'll probably still be working for at least 30 years, sometimes that makes me a little depressed, but more often I get excited about it - who knows what kinds of opportunities will come up if you allow yourself to be open to new experiences?! It's thrilling in a way to think of how different you are now from what you were 10 years ago, and that we all get to go through that reinvention a few times in our lifetime if you so choose.

    Obviously I could go on about this all day, but I guess I should get back to my actual job of helping students ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is also something that I find interesting as I am often thinking about this for myself... and I'm not a stay at home mom. I earned a degree in something that I realize doesn't feed me the way I need a career too so I am actually doing something else. I have no intention of going back to school so I have to figure out how to sell what skills I do have, and most importantly - what area that might be in.

    I also get how you talk about sometimes wanting to have a mind-less job. That sometimes sounds so appealing, but then I realize that I just want a less stressful job. Somebody tell me that there are jobs out there that can challenge me (in a good way), not be stressful, be flexible, and so on. Sometimes I wonder if I want too much.

    Good luck in your discovery!

    ReplyDelete