I began as an English teacher. (Yes, I know. My grammar and spelling are going downhill) And I ended as a mental health professional. In between there were assorted blue- and white-collar jobs. Always balancing the needs of family with my own career needs.
There have been other new beginnings, as well, physical, spiritual and mental.
I haven’t been always satisfied with my choices. Sometime the need to bring in an income was more important than what I wanted to do. But each job was another layer to the onion and brought new job and social skills with it.
I’m at the age when people begin to take stock of their lives and it doesn’t make sense to me to live with regret. Imagine spending time alone with yourself in a bed or wheelchair and thinking you wasted it all. That sounds like living hell.
I’ve made a few horrendous mistakes and spent years cleaning up the messes I’ve made. I’ve done a few things that nearly felt like small miracles.
Most of the time when there were lemons I made lemonade. Sometimes I just chucked it in the trash and looked for something else. Creating satisfaction internally finally became more important than appearing successful. Eventually I determined for myself that success means having built a life that has filled your needs.
So yes, I did a good job of living an eclectic and haphazard life and now all the crooked puzzle pieces are beginning to form the picture.
I don’t think I’m done changing and I’m looking forward to my next new beginning.
Sort of, but it pales compared to my dad’s. He worked for a finance company for a couple of years out of college, then junked that when he had to repossess a family’s furniture on Christmas. His returned to his hometown where he bought into his family’s general store, raised me and my brother, and was an integral part of the community.
When my brother and I left home, he sold the store, moved to a lakeside community, and became a golf pro.
I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I got out of college, and through a path of least resistance, ended up working in the subprime mortgage industry. I lived in Chicago, had my own (teensy) apartment, and volunteered at the Field Museum. I hated my job completely, but otherwise, was fairly happy. A couple times a year I went to California to visit my family. I dressed nicely and wore makeup every day. When I was 25, I decided I wanted to work in international development. Now I’m 32, unemployed and crashing with my parents - but hopefully this is temporary! In the interim I:
served as a Peace Corps volunteer working as an elementary school teacher.
learned to speak another language.
swam with whale sharks in the Philippines.
had my insomnia cured by a Bulgarian witch doctor.
survived the traffic in India.
did not get arrested by the military police that time in Colombia.
did not die of hypothermia on New Year’s Eve in Cappadocia, Turkey.
got rid of my nice clothes and mostly just wore jeans a lot.
completed 94% of my master’s degree in public policy (should have the other 6% done by next month).
Also, considering the industry I used to work in, there’s no way I would still have my old job anyway.
I am 30 years old. I have spent the last 12 years working in dead end jobs (factory and office mainly with a bit of retail thrown in for good measure).
I hated my jobs and hated my life. I wasted high school and graduated 89th in my class when I could have been 1st. I dropped out of my first college before my first semester finished and took a leave of absence from my second college but never went back. My dissatisfaction with my life led me to break up with the most wonderful man in the world.
After having surgery for yet another repetition induced injury and then losing my job for the same reason, I decided to turn my life around. I moved back home, reconciled with my wonderful boyfriend, and enrolled in community college.
I will be receiving my mid-term grades in 2 days and I have no reason to expect they’ll be anything but A’s. I will be graduating with an AA in Liberal Arts in just over 1 year and then will be transferring to get my BS, and then hopefully to medical school. I hope to achieve my life-long goal of becoming a forensic pathologist. Check back with me in 8 years and I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I still can’t believe that I’m starting an educational path that will have me finishing when I’m almost 40. What the hell am I thinking?!
I started out in academia, left that when I was 32, got into the magazine biz, spent about 20 years doing that. Currently content manager for a website, which uses many of the same skills I’d been using in print (writing, editing, project management), plus some others I’ve picked up along the way, plus a whole new set I’m learning now. (I’m 55.)
I was a lawyer by the time I was 25 and I just went back to business school at 31. It is definitely harder when you start getting more settled (not to mention, you already have a couple of degrees) but very much worth it. I love business school in a way I never loved undergrad or law school, though I don’t regret getting my other graduate degree, since it’s what prepared me to do well here.
No, you are certainly not “stuck” at age 25. Although there is a tendency for people in their early 20s to start feeling a sense that they should be progressing along some sort of career track or that they should be more successful by about that time. I blame this on our youth-oriented culture that idolizes young stars and entrepreneurs like the Facebook guy to the point where it makes it seem like if you aren’t a rock star or millionare businessman by 25 there’s something wrong with you. But I digress.
I don’t know if I would call them “new beginnings” so much as they are “inflection points” where my life has evolved into a new direction.
At 25 I changed careers from structural engineering to IT and management consulting and moved to Boston
At 28 I completed my MBA and moved to NYC
At 32 I began specializing in a specific niche field of management consulting
Now at 38 I am unemployed and trying to decide what I want to do next. Probably something a little different from what I’ve been doing.
You should be thinking you are going to turn 40 anyway. The question is do you want to be a 40 year old forensic pathologist or a 40 year old dropout?
Years ago I talked to a guy who had reinvented himself several times. I can’t remember what all he said except merchant marine. At the age of 70-something, he decided he wanted to be a movie actor. At the time I was thinking “Yeah, good luck old man”, but admired his ambition. Looking at IMDB, I see he has 32 credits to his name, including Gilmore Girls, Scrubs, and My Name is Earl.
As the product of a father who moved my family around pretty frequently, and on a whim, decided to relocate the family to DRC for a couple of years, I tend to get antsy staying in one place for too long. Plus, I missed Africa intensely. So, exactly a year ago today, I flew to Kenya with a handful of other education volunteers. I learned Kenyan Sign Language, followed by Swahili, and currently teach at a school for the Deaf. I am not 25.
Not a career change, but my personal life changed completely, by my choice, at 32. It was tremendously scary but ultimately very much for the best. Everything about my life EXCEPT my job is basically completely different than it was 2 years or so ago…