Dream Job

[LJSDesigns]

My dream job before kids was to be an architect or doctor. My mom thought nursing first would be good. She was so wrong! lol! I loved all of it but the teacher. If I didn't have kids and wasn't the one that's home with them. I would go back to be a doctor pediatrician more than likely.

I then went on to get my Associates Degree in Liberal Arts. I finished that when Cole was two. Once I had him I knew that I couldn't be in a class with him or several kids like him. I love that child but man he's 200% all day long. He has ADHD and is super smart but can't slow down long enough to get anything on paper. It would probably be totally different with kids that are not mine but, I wouldn't want to risk it. I always loved the little kids because they are so full of wonder and keep you on your toes.

Now my dream job would be something I could do from home. That didn't require me talking to people. I love Math and could definitely do something with numbers. I still have one child left at home until August of next year when she starts school. I am going to take that year and clean my house and enjoy the clean until they get home from school. Then after that figure out what it is I want to do. As my husband works for a school district in another state. I would be needed to do the majority of the holiday care etc. He does have some off but not all of the same ones that our kids do. So we will see.

Nursing is not something I would ever want to do. Again, it takes a special person. I nursed both my dad and my mom through their terminal illnesses and it was the hardest thing I have even done, and I loved them. Doing all that for a stranger? Not enough money in the world for me to do that. Health care is just the profession for me, although I did think about being a radiation therapist while I was going through cancer treatment. It didn't seem like a bad gig.

My sister is the VP of finance for a company, she has the logical mind in the family, and I know that more and more of her people are going to continue to work from home for the foreseeable future, so maybe you can find some in the accounting field that would work from home.

Like I have said before, taking time for yourself is a great thing to do, so I hope you enjoy that. Sounds like a kid who is going at 200% all the time, you've earned it!

 

[LJSDesigns]

I designed under Leaving a Legacy Designs. I stopped when my youngest was about 6...got kind of burnt out after 4 yrs and needed a change. It was very time consuming...late hours. I miss it somedays but some not...I enjoy just scrapping now.

This was my very first kit...I was doing a lot of paper pieced stuff..I cringe now looking at it. LOL :w00t:

I got a little better after a while but never felt my stuff was great...LOL

Here are some of my paper pieced elements...my ad girl piled them all up for my going out of business ad

I love paper piecing! I think not feeling your stuff is great is something we all experience. I know I do. I've been here for over three years now and still doubt I am actually good enough to be here. It boggles my mind that I made it and probably always will. And yes, it is very time consuming, which is why I only sleep 4 hours a day! LOL

 

[knittingbec]

I always, always wanted to be a teacher & my favorite pre-teaching field experience was with the sweetest preschool class! But, like Rachel, I went with elementary education instead. I mostly loved being a 1st & 2nd grade teacher, then became a stay-at-home mom.
When my daughter was in preschool, I started to think more & more about how much I'd love to be a preschool teacher. And partway through the year, her class had grown so much that the school added a 2nd class of 4 year olds & asked me if I'd be the teacher! I loved it & decided that I'd be a preschool teacher forever. Then the next year, I was asked to move up to kindergarten with my class. So, so much for that
I'm not working now & probably won't until my husband retires from the military. But when we settle down somewhere for more than a few years, I'd love to return to preschool (half-day!) and I'd also love to assistant or volunteer coach high school track/cross country (not sure how long I'll wait to do that, because a huge part of the appeal of teaching preschool is being able to be home for my kids after school, get them to their activities, etc.)

But if we're talking totally off-the-wall "if you could do anything regardless of your talents or experiences", my dream job would be on Broadway. But I lack the talents required for that

 

[Kiana]

I'm pretty sure we've talked about the fact that you and my son have poetry in common. I think it is amazing that you are a published poet! I love poetry and used to write it myself, which is how my son got started, but he blows me out of the water.

Poetry is a thing of beauty, but it's really hard to make a living at, so I totally understand where you are coming from with the day job. I wish more people appreciated the majesty of a well written poem, but I think less and less people are actually reading anything but social media these days.

If you don't mind, link us up to some of your work on line. I would love to read it and share it with my son.

Yup, I remember, he was a poet too. that's so awesome!!!
Yes I think most people are just reading social media. lol
I create images all the time of poem snippets etc to try and gain interest in my work. It's exhausting sometimes, but I believe my words need to be read. As all poets do, otherwise we would never share them. lol

you can always find me and my work on FB and IG
www.kianadonae.com is the website that holds all the links!!!!:wub:

 

[HavaDrPepper]

What about you, how do you handle your daily retirement life? Do you have a plan for each day or do you just go with the flow. I know you are suppsed to relax and just enjoy the moments in retirement, but again that is not me. I don't really know how to just relax and let things happen. Like I said, I need structure. That is probably really weird, but I tend to be weird. LOL

I pretty much go with the flow. I do make sure I do all errands during the week and avoid the stores on weekends when they are more crowded. I always hated going shopping on weekends when I worked. So I go when the stores are less crowded and if I go to the grocery on Tuesday, I get a senior discount. I do laundry as needed usually every 2 weeks for clothes, every week for towels and underwear.

Before my dental issues stopped me in my tracks my cousin and I would go out to eat a couple times a week, sometimes deciding in early afternoon to go that day. Now that those have been resolved, I can actually start "living" again. 2020 and COVID actually didn't change my life a whole lot since I didn't go many places. It is embarrassing to be seen in public with no teeth (masks were great though!).

The good thing about going with the flow is that sometimes things come up spur of the moment and I'll say "heck yeah, let's go". 2 years ago a cousin texted me to ask if I was going to be available the next day. She lives 3 hours away and was bringing her granddaughters to see our air & space museum and wanted to see me. I ended up spending the afternoon with them and we had a great time! I also have various interests that make my days not so boring. I tend to work on jigsaw puzzles in the winter and do a lot of scrapping then. I've had my periods of non-stop reading.

I do plan things and am in the process of planning a get together with some high school friends once one of them feels she can get around enough following her knee surgery she had 3 weeks ago. And, with COVID restrictions lifted in Ohio and I can eat again, I may just start going out to eat. We've got a new restaurant in town that is only open for lunch and I'd like to check it out.

I know many retired people do like to have structure in their lives. They will do volunteering on a schedule and exercise classes are another big thing. Water aerobics at the Y is always full!

So retirement can be what you make of it. I choose to go with the flow.

 

[Dalis]

Ok, I am a really weird person... LOL!!! I knew what my dream job was when I was in 10th grade! I was super excited to let my parents know, unfortunately they were not as excited as I was. They prohibited me from becoming a pathologist. I wanted to do autopsies all day long, no I am not a person that is interested in death, but to me learning why people died was the most fascinated thing ever. I wanted to learn how to help others by learning from autopsies. Would I still go and study it, if I had the funds 100%, but I unfortunately don't and we are saving to send our daughter to study whatever her dream job is.

I ended up becoming an engineer, now I am at home with Bianca. No job, no interest in going back to work, because I hate it... so there it is.

 

[LJSDesigns]

Ok, I am a really weird person... LOL!!! I knew what my dream job was when I was in 10th grade! I was super excited to let my parents know, unfortunately they were not as excited as I was. They prohibited me from becoming a pathologist. I wanted to do autopsies all day long, no I am not a person that is interested in death, but to me learning why people died was the most fascinated thing ever. I wanted to learn how to help others by learning from autopsies. Would I still go and study it, if I had the funds 100%, but I unfortunately don't and we are saving to send our daughter to study whatever her dream job is.

I ended up becoming an engineer, now I am at home with Bianca. No job, no interest in going back to work, because I hate it... so there it is.

Oh my gosh, I can’t believe your parents didn’t support that. People are always dying so there is total job security. Lol. A woman I went to college with became a coroner. I’ve actually seen her on real life crime shows a few times. Truthfully I am glad she deals with people who have passed because her grades in med school weren’t great. This seems safer. Lol

 

[bienejen]

I love nature and wildlife photography. When I was younger I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer. Travel the world. See exotic places and animals and take amazing photos. I took two photography classes in college and learned a lot. Mainly that it was much much harder than it looks (this was back in the day of developing your own negatives and making test prints in a darkroom). As I began taking more and more pictures I learned too that capturing that great shot that you see in magazines also takes a lot more time than you'd think. So while I would still love to travel the world and take cool photos, I'm happy having a zillion pictures of my kids and taking tons of photos on vacation. Beyond travel/nature photographer, I don't really know what my dream job would be and that was one of the biggest challenges I faced when I went to college.

 

[LJSDesigns]

I always, always wanted to be a teacher & my favorite pre-teaching field experience was with the sweetest preschool class! But, like Rachel, I went with elementary education instead. I mostly loved being a 1st & 2nd grade teacher, then became a stay-at-home mom.
When my daughter was in preschool, I started to think more & more about how much I'd love to be a preschool teacher. And partway through the year, her class had grown so much that the school added a 2nd class of 4 year olds & asked me if I'd be the teacher! I loved it & decided that I'd be a preschool teacher forever. Then the next year, I was asked to move up to kindergarten with my class. So, so much for that
I'm not working now & probably won't until my husband retires from the military. But when we settle down somewhere for more than a few years, I'd love to return to preschool (half-day!) and I'd also love to assistant or volunteer coach high school track/cross country (not sure how long I'll wait to do that, because a huge part of the appeal of teaching preschool is being able to be home for my kids after school, get them to their activities, etc.)

But if we're talking totally off-the-wall "if you could do anything regardless of your talents or experiences", my dream job would be on Broadway. But I lack the talents required for that

LOL, about Broadway. I'd love to be a singer too, problem is, I can't sing. At All.

Teaching is a great profession in most ways, but the financial rewards. My son taught kindergarten for a week as a sub and told me never again. His reasoning, "they're too little and they can't read or anything." LOL Seemed to forget it was his job to teach them to read. It's a shame really because little kids adore him. He is really tall, 6'4" and has this deep voice and when he taught bible school those little ones flocked to him and hung all over him. Seriously he would be walking with little ones holding on to his legs and arms and think nothing of it. It was so cute.

Being a coach would be a cool job. Did you run track yourself?

 

[LJSDesigns]

I love nature and wildlife photography. When I was younger I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer. Travel the world. See exotic places and animals and take amazing photos. I took two photography classes in college and learned a lot. Mainly that it was much much harder than it looks (this was back in the day of developing your own negatives and making test prints in a darkroom). As I began taking more and more pictures I learned too that capturing that great shot that you see in magazines also takes a lot more time than you'd think. So while I would still love to travel the world and take cool photos, I'm happy having a zillion pictures of my kids and taking tons of photos on vacation. Beyond travel/nature photographer, I don't really know what my dream job would be and that was one of the biggest challenges I faced when I went to college.

That would be one cool job, but yeah you would go through a lot of film getting that one awesome shot. Your kids are lucky you have skill with a camera because they will have a lifetime of good shots to cherish.

The thought of traveling the world excites me and terrifies me at the same time. I have a terrible sense of direction, so travel outside of my element is a challenge and really stresses me. The travel apps have made it better, but if the phone battery were to die, I might literally find myself up a creek without a paddle. :blink:

 

[rach3975]

Will your son always require specialized care? I can only imagine the cost. My father needed special care round the clock, he was a quadriplegic by the end of his battle with MD, and the cost devastated my parent emotionally and financially, even though we provided all but 8 hours a day of it so we could work, which is why my mom ended up living with me. Healthcare of that kind is another soapbox item for me as well, since I know first hand what it can do to a family.

That must have been such a tough time for all of you! We definitely need better healthcare and supports here. Thankfully Ben doesn't require specialized care--medically he's healthy. He's just much less independent than his peers and can't stay home without an adult. His problem solving skills are terrible--if things don't go as expected, he freezes and does nothing or does the wrong thing and doesn't make adjustments when it isn't working. There are lots of less dramatic examples every day, but the big ones are things like not being able to trust him to leave the house If there were a fire or knowing that if he got hurt and needed medical attention he'd be likely to stay curled up where he fell if no one was around to help. He needs a companion to do things with who can also serve as babysitter, not skilled care. We're working toward him being able to stay home alone and I think we'll get there eventually, but it won't be when he's 18.

Teaching is a great profession in most ways, but the financial rewards. My son taught kindergarten for a week as a sub and told me never again. His reasoning, "they're too little and they can't read or anything." LOL Seemed to forget it was his job to teach them to read. It's a shame really because little kids adore him.

LOL. I think every teacher has an age range that they think of as "their kids," and most of us don't want to work outside that range. You couldn't pay me enough to take a middle school or high school job!

 

[JoCee]

I miss all the magazines you used to be able to get. There is nothing better than a good magazine. I remember thinking how naughty I was when I would sneak one of my mom's True Story magazines to read! LOL

I am so happy you are working your dream job now, Jo, and so glad we get to do it here together. :wub:

I LOVED working on that magazine. I still have many copies, somewhere, of the Diana issues we worked so hard on. What a crazy time.

and yes, I am so glad to be here with you too my friend, you were my inspiration to do my best to become an SSD designer xx

 

[Dalis]

Oh my gosh, I can’t believe your parents didn’t support that. People are always dying so there is total job security. Lol. A woman I went to college with became a coroner. I’ve actually seen her on real life crime shows a few times. Truthfully I am glad she deals with people who have passed because her grades in med school weren’t great. This seems safer. Lol

OMG, I laughed so hard about your friend. LOL!!! Right 100% job security! Plus, patients don't complain!