Career is Not My Priority

I have no idea what I’m doing with my career.

As a young child, when my peers were dreaming of becoming doctors, police officers, and teachers, I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. Sure I was biased because I had one, but I wanted to be a mom. My dramatic play was always based off of getting married and having babies with my favorite TV characters. As I got older it turned into fanfiction writing about those favorite characters (new ones!) and their lives.

At school, I thought about being a librarian. I loved reading and was grade levels ahead every year. Then I wanted to be a teacher. In high school I was lost again. I didn’t like school, so I didn’t want to continue on in school for the rest of my life. I loved music and singing and I have a talent so I was looking into different music careers. I wanted to produce for a while, but looking into the college requirements it had a lot of physics and math, subjects I struggled in (at best!). I didn’t want to teach, and then I found Music Therapy.

It sounded great. You use music to deliver therapy to anyone, children, adults, people with disabilities, mothers in labor, infants in the NICU, people in hospice and so many more. I was accepted to school and I graduated four years later with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Therapy. I dealt with a lot of anxiety about the career. I don’t think it was imposter syndrome, I think it was discomfort being in a career path I wasn’t passionate about.

I graduated and did what I was supposed to, I completed my internship and got a job halfway across the country. I wasn’t happy with it. I didn’t feel like there was enough of a passion. I didn’t love what I was doing. I didn’t feel like I was doing my best. So when my fiance got a job two hours away, I followed him and tried something else.

I started working as a pre-school teacher a year ago. I do not like it. The kids are great, they’re the best part of the job. My co-workers and the parents are generally the worst part of the job and I do not want to stay there.

So with the jobs I’ve done in my life (I’ve also worked at a restaurant but I don’t consider that ‘career’) a few things are clear and I need a change. I want to find a career I can do that I will enjoy.

I need a job that will provide for my desired lifestyle.

I want to be a mother. Having children is something I’ve always wanted. My husband and I both work in jobs that don’t make a lot. So I want to find a career that will provide enough on part-time work, or build skills now to have a job that will continue to provide when I want to have children.

The options I’ve considered and will be exploring are the following:

  1. Blogging – this has been the highest recommended “work-at-home” option. It can make a lot of money if done in the right niche in the right way. Downside, I’m unsure of a niche and I don’t know if my life is interesting enough.
  2. Creating Passive Income – this one is more vague, but the best option I can do with my current skill-set, is to write and self-publish a book. Downside, do I have a topic to write about? Chandler Bolt seems to think so.
  3. Grad School – I’m considering going back to school to obtain an MSW. I’m good with organization and I believe working in an administrative team for a non-profit or any other service company, I could be valuable. Downside, it’s expensive.
  4. Proofreading – the one skill I am developing is proofreading for court reporters. I really like this option as what I’ve discovered is there is a demand for this service and growth in the industry is possible. I’m in the middle of taking Caitlin Pyle’s Proofread Anywhere course and I’m feeling successful. Downside, it costs a bit up-front and it does take loads of work to master the skill.
  5. Virtual Assisting – This one I just started researching. I’m going to explore doing some assisting. I have the skills, I’d just need to learn how to apply them, and market myself to bloggers or professionals who could utilize them.

My main goal is to be able to work from home. I want to be a stay-at-home mom someday, so having a business I can develop now while my husband and I are childless, is so valuable. My main goal in life isn’t career (if yours is, that’s ok! Everyone is different) it’s family. I want to have a family life. But to have it, I need a stable income.

I’ll say it here, my goal for 2017 is to leave my day job and begin earning income from home. I will continue to update on this as the year progresses. Ups and downs, anything is possible.