Sunday, February 7, 2010

Fill In the Blank

I recently met up with a friend of mine who spent the last three years teaching in Thailand. Now that she's back, she's decided to, "Give the photography thing a try," and has started her own photography business. (http://www.clearlykatie.com/) It was so inspirational to hear how she is following her dream, while not taking it too seriously and getting way uptight about it...or at least that's how she made it seem. :)

Anyway, our conversation got me thinking again about, "What I want to be when I grow up."

You see, I like teaching, but I don't love it. I find that I take home too much work, both mentally and physically, and that I don't think I'll ever be the amazing, creative teacher I know I could be because I've got too many kids in the class and not enough classroom support.

So, I've been replaying what my friend said and trying to figure out what I could give a try. "I think I'll give ____________ a try."

But the thing is, I don't know what my "Blank" should be!

I have lots of ideas; some of them are time consuming, some are creative, some require more schooling, some come with low stress, and others with a pay cut. Some require working in the summer, while others cost money to start up. I made a pro/con list for my ideas, but I still don't know what my "Blank" should be.

Any ideas for narrowing down the possibilities? How do I find a job that I LOVE, not just like? And for those of you out there that do love your jobs, what makes your job so great?

-Pigtailed Teacher

4 comments:

  1. I'm still on that quest to figure out what I want to be when I grow up! Well, I have a couple of ideas, but nobody is handing me a job yet. Something that has always worked for me is lists. Make a list of what you're good at. If there's a job you're interested in pursuing, make a list of the positives and negatives of pursuing it.

    When I was miserable in a History Ph.D. program, I did the same thing to figure out if I should get certified to teach high school or stay on track to become a professor. When I looked at my list, I realized that most of my reasons for staying in the program were shallow. I got my terminal M.A, and started taking education classes. Looking back, I mad the right choice.

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  2. Ms. Thang there's no need to reinvent the wheel, simply find someone who's loving their life, and chosen money making endeavor, and copy them! yes, yes, I said it again STEAL their _____ for your ________!

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  3. Maybe, you need to make the job your not happy with to the job that you like...I fought that battle for ever and I had a lot of eight hour jobs that took ten or more to get done and still only get paid for eight even had three jobs to do in one day and found myself with out no time to sleep or play working for your self you allways feel like you need to do something to make money.Life is a Bitch then you die Cheers Frank

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  4. It sounds to me that you need a job, that gets you up in the morning,put four hours in and go back to work for four hours. somewhere else, just the change in jobs sometimes makes the eight hour day easier to get through..I never found a job that I didn't have to give extra time too but thats part of keeping a Job LV YA Frank

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