What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

When we were little, people always asked us, "So, what do you want to be when you grow up?"  When I was little the boys all answered, "A professional football player."  The girls' answers were mixed, they included, " nurse", "vet", "hairdresser", or "singer".  Well, I don't think there were any pro football players who came out of my class or the whole school for that matter.  I recall my answer to that question was hairdresser.  I always wanted to do hair.  I had a life-sized Barbie head that I could practice on! I did it's hair and makeup.

When it came time to go to college, I really wanted to go to hair school.  My mom, however, believed I should get a "real" education.  She said to me, "You can always go back for that."  So, I went to a four-year private Presbyterian college.  It was very expensive.  I got a degree in journalism and a second major in English.  But, what was I going to do with it was the real question.  Well, I thought I was going to write for newspapers, be a reporter.  If I would have stayed where I went to college, in Storm Lake, Iowa, I had a job waiting for me.  However, cupid took over and I ended up getting married and moving to Denver.  In Denver you can write for newspapers, but you don't get paid, or if you do get paid, it's next to nothing!  I needed money, so I ended up becoming a secretary.  Employers loved my English degree.  I could proofread their letters.  So, I got sucked into the secretarial field for a good 15+ years of my life.  It pretty much ended about a year ago when I was laid off from a receptionist job.  There was a year prior to that when I was a retail manager, but I hated working weekends and went back to secretarial for the hours. For the past year, I have been working grocery retail, health store retail and merchandising.  Three jobs, three part-time jobs trying to make up for a full-time job. 

I have always regretted not going to hair school.  Everyone always says its never to late to go back, but I'm freaking 42 years old!  I feel like it's a little too late.  I also feel that I have so much more to give, but I don't really know what I was destined to do!  I have never figured it out! Of all of my jobs, I loved being a retail manager the most.  I loved it all, but firing people and working weekends.  So now I ask myself, "Now what do I do?"  Do I go back to school?  If so, for what?  Hair?  Retail management?  I have even considered the medical field since it seems to be where the money and jobs are.

How does one decide what they want to be?  Does it just come to you?  A lot of people follow the family business, but is that what they really wanted to do?  I believe there are  a lot of people who were pressured by their parents to be a lawyer or doctor, or something impressive.  I was pressured to go to a four-year college and look where it landed me - nowhere!

Maybe I should take one of those tests that tell you what you should be.  Maybe I should ask a fortune teller or the old reliable "8 Ball"!  Or, a Ouija Board!  Roll a dice!  Flip a coin!  Draw a straw! Maybe I need a Guidance Counselor!  If my Guidance Counsel in high school would have done his job maybe I would already be something I wanted to be!  I always thought the perfect job was no job at all!  I would win the lottery and stay home! Your job is half of your time, half of your life - 8 hours of your day, five days a week, 40+ hours a week, every week!  I feel that you really should do something that you enjoy if you are spending half your life doing it!

How many people really enjoy what they do for work?  I am guessing a hand full, maybe.  It wouldn't be called "work" if you really enjoyed it.  I think that's why they call it a "career".  What does "career" really mean though?  According to the Oxford English Dictionary,  a career is, "an individuals course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)".  Career comes from the Latin word "carrera", which means "race (as in rat race)".  A career assessment is, "help to identify and better articulate their unique interests, values and skills".

According to About.com, the top 10 careers for women are the following:

1. Pharmacist
2. Chief Executive Officer
3. Lawyer
4. Computer Software Engineer
5. Computer or Information Systems Manager
6. Physician or Surgeon
7. Management Analyst
8. Human Resource Manager
9. Speech Pathologist
10. Computer Scientist

Wow, did I ever go wrong!  lol!  None of the above sound fun to me!  I am easily bored and need constant stimulation!  I am a people person.  I like to be helpful to others.  So, what career does that mean I should choose?  I just took one of those career assessment tests online and it shows that I should be a "WRITER".  Wow! That is what I went to school for.  I guess I just need to find a way to make a living at it.  Maybe I will submit something to a magazine or try to publish something.  I have a friend who owns a Hispanic newspaper and she asked me to write for her.  Maybe I will just have to take her up on that offer after all.

What do you want to be when you grow up?