When I grow up I’ll ... be able to finish that sentence!
Yes, I am a grown-up which already has had one career and now faced with trying to decide which direction to go in now. I would have been getting ready to retire early but a work injury side-stepped that plan. With so many out of work I find that suddenly I have lots of playmates which are also reinventing themselves.
After a twenty year medical career I decided to try on law to see how that fits. One year of law under my belt and I suddenly want to jump ship. It isn’t that I am not passionate about law in the way I was as a medical professional; I just find it a bit less fulfilling. As a people person I find that law is simply not people-friendly.
I have spent the last two years trying to find some direction. Writing for medical journals (yawn) is paying the bills but I need more than just something to pay the bills. I need something which I am passionate about and look forward to every day. Walking into a placement agency they usually look at my resume and tell me to pick something and stick with it. That is actually my problem. There are so many choices.
It isn’t like I am some twenty-something person that is still wandering around trying to find myself. I had found myself long ago and did not plan on being side-swiped out of a career that I loved and miss. One part of me wants to go back to medical school and get my MD but then I am reminded that every college I had applied to simply laugh at my military education and want me to retake every class I have already taken.
Okay, I will admit that I got really mad, pouted, stomped, and cried. The next day I did it again but it didn’t make me feel any better. So I am now asking you to give me some advice. Yes, I know you are a stranger and probably have never met me, but that means you’ll most likely be nonjudgmental and open-minded.
What do you think about clown school? Ha! I was just kidding! Clown school is not an option. Sure it would be fun but realistically would it be a good choice for a middle-aged woman? I have become so frustrated that I feel overwhelmed by a decision I didn’t think I’d ever be making again.
In my childhood, people were in a career for a lifetime. That has changed. We are a nation of people in the midst of a paradigm shift within careers, life, and culture. We are the midst of changes which will reach into areas our nation has never experienced before. There are millions of people out of work or a career due to one thing or another but the results are the same. We are overwhelmed and frustrated. We need focus and direction. So many of us are simply at a point where they would actually ask perfect strangers to help them decide what path to take. That is astounding and unfortunately true.
So, I am open for some ideas. Got any? I am a grown-up that still does not know what to do with my life. The rules I was prepared for are changing daily and the goal post keeps getting placed much further down the road. I am literally that person wandering around asking what I should be when I grow up. Maturity does not give me answers. Do you know who has the answers?
