Mini Quiz (you don't have to tell me the answers if you don't want to):
I love my profession: true/false
I love my job: true/false
I knew what I wanted to do before starting college: true/false
I'm done with college and have no clue what I want to do now: true/false
How did you decide what you wanted to do?
Let me preface this by saying that I loved all four of my year in college. I made life-long friends, and learned a lot about myself.
Those who read my blog post "25 Things You Didn't Know About Me", would have read that I am not happy with my profession. I honestly cannot tell you why. I enjoy being with my students; they are silly and crazy and make me laugh all the time. Yet at the end of the day, I feel like something is missing.
From the time we are in preschool until adulthood, we continue to hear one question "what do you want to be when you grow up". In preschool, my answer was to be a teacher. There is a video of me at my preschool graduation saying that I wanted to be a teacher. As I got older, my ideas of wanting to be a teacher changed. In high school I wanted to be a social worker; but my mom said that there is no money in social work. My first year of college I attempted to take an Education class, just in case I wanted to be a teacher, but ended up dropping it (twice) because I did not like the class. Instead I became an English major. I chose English because I love to read, enjoyed writing papers, and I did well in the classes. I did not think about what I would do with my English degree once my four years at URI were up. I applied for my masters in teaching because I needed to stay on my mom's health insurance and it's what my mom wanted me to do. Who knows where I would be right now if I did not have to worry about health insurance.
Now at 24 and graduated from two colleges, I have no clue where to go from here. There are so many different professions that sound exciting to me, and there are so many things that I see myself doing. Flight attendant. Fundraising event planner. Social media. Psychologist. The options are endless, but how do I know what is going to satisfy me? I wish that before starting college, or even in the middle of college, I took a year off to travel, explore and try out different jobs. I have totally different interests now than I did when I graduated high school. I'm debating taking a year off next year, and doing who know's what. I know that I do not want to keep working at a job that does not make me happy. I just hope my mom doesn't kill me!
Come to RI and open a self-serve frozen yogurt store!!!
ReplyDeleteThat would be fabulous...but I would probably end up weighing 1,000 pounds haha
DeleteYou have to quit. It's the brave thing to do. It's also the scariest. Don't sign up for another year. Staying somewhere you don't like to be responsible has a short shelf life. I also vaguely remember your Mom talking about leaving a particular makeup company because they made her crazy. She'll understand.
ReplyDeleteYou're not actually being responsible if you're unhappy or unproductive. It usually ends badly or with a melt down. What will happen is you'll convince yourself you're staying to be responsible and some small comment/thing will set you off. When you realize that people don't give you extra credit for being unhappy you'll get angry. Don't waste your own time. It's important to leave before you get so fed up that something happens.
The really practical wisdom is to save money before you leave. That almost never happens. If you can't save any money while you're there then there's no point in staying. Also, you can be just as broke doing what you love. Usually, from the first time you think about quitting that thought never goes away. I can help you apply for internships which is what you'll probably have to do to try something else.