Friday, May 8, 2009

I'm all grown up, now what should I do

I went to college with my major chosen and my career in mind; psychology and counselor (because I wanted to help people). But after taking a few psych courses, I remember thinking "how can they just leave God and religion out of the picture." It was all about dissecting and labeling the person, the disorder, the syndrome and nothing about the environment and culture that surrounded them. My second year in college I took a sociology class on social deviance. Between loving that class and the professor (who later became my advisor) and hating my psych stats class I switched from Psychology to Sociology. Sociology is awesome. In my mind its almost the opposite of why I hated my psych classes. Sociology studies culture and society and its affects on individuals. Religion, faith, belief in God has validity in sociology and I didn't feel that in psych. (A quick side note: I have no problem with Christians in psychology or any associated field. It just wasn't right for me in college.)

So after changing my major and giving up on my math minor I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Sociology.
But before I did that I got married and had Peter. Well so now I had my career being a wife and mom. But then I had to get a job while Zack went to school. What kind of job do you get with a bachelors in Sociology?? (Still not sure about that one.)

I ended up at Corbis in data quality. I like data quality, have a small passion for it I would say, but is that really what I'm supposed to be doing? I have no doubt God meant me to be at Corbis or rather meant me to be friends with Debi, but I'm not sure if learning about data quality was an added benefit or part of the purpose of me being there. I was also in charge of a team of 7 people there and found fulfillment in leading and managing a team.

Well so now I'm working in a data quality job but instead of being excited about finding dirty data and cleaning it up I'm bored and miserable. If it weren't for my awesome boss and my loyalty to him I would have found a new job awhile ago or at least tried really hard. And the commute doesn't help.

So most of this reflection comes out of wanting a different job but having NO IDEA what kind of job I should look for or try to get. I've had several people say you should do want you really want to especially if you have a job and can look for the 'right' one. Well I do have dreams of what I would like to do but most of them aren't practical and the question always looms, would I really like that? Or more currently could I make enough money doing that? So here are some of my dreams...

I think it would be fun to teach people how to cook. Just simple but not dull meals. And in teaching them that I would convince them that eating dinner with their family at the table without the TV on is one of the best things they can do for their family.

I would love to have a working ranch close by where I could take in homeless people and give them purpose and a job to do. (by the way the theory that people are supposed to work and produce something is a Marxist theory although it originated with God)

Or I could help couples plan their wedding and make it less stressful and then decorate their cake for them.
Or be a potter who makes functional yet abstract ceramic ware.
Or someone who teaches abused women and children life skills and helps them make a new start.
Or become a doula.
A few more practical ideas I've had are massage therapist, hair stylist, cafe/coffee shop manager.

It'd be easier if I had just one or two ideas. What do I want to do? Well I want to help people. I guess thats one id...no its not an idea its an action or end result! I need the how, the who, and the doing what. If only I didn't have to be so practical!

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