Write. Read. Repeat.

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Never experienced 80 degree weather in April before, but here we are. As the air warms so does the stress of life.

Through the winter, we hunker down, keep stock of what we have to survive off of, and plan for the warmer days. This is good in theory but difficult when you never get the chance to rest and count your stock.

With that said, the journey of the Associate’s Degree is coming to its long-awaited end. I have my last quarter- Interpersonal Communication and British Literature I- then I will finally have my degree. However, the rest and recuperation phase will not last long, as I plan to immediately go into my Bachelor’s.

This is a wonderous and daunting feeling, as I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up, but this is the next step. I have pondered over this quandary for sometime of course, but it feels like we are in the eleventh hour.

Trying to mind map the future is difficult for me. There is a short list of things I want (a longer list of things I don’t want) in a career, and I would be lying if I said I did not feel the pressure of choosing. I did try this processes and the scrabbled lines of ‘this could work but…’ or the ‘in a perfect world, I would do this,’ made the page look less like organized and strategical planning and more like how my mind actually feels. At this point, I think I will start pulling careers from a hat or throw a dart at a board of Indeed listings.

I know I want to have a somewhat hybrid job. Working from home or elsewhere has always been important for me in not created negative relationships with physical space. I know that I love research and problem solving. I know that I do not want to have to go to school for half my life (like it already feels like I have) to be able to do this job. And I know I want each day to bring a different challenge as mundanity rots my soul.

To be fair, I did choose once. I have spent now the last ten years of my academic and professional life in veterinary medicine and I am desperately trying to claw my way out (pun not intended). This was a realization that took me far too long to come too as well.

There is still the part of me that thinks I am making a huge mistake leaving something that I once devoted every part of myself to, but that was probably my problem. While I did last longer in this field than the average assistant/technician does, that does not mean “I succeeded.” In fact, I still feel the weight of Imposter Syndrome heavy over me, even as I am making my plans of egress.

So, I have a question. I want to- no, NEED-to know:

Has anyone done what they loved for work, from the beginning, and still loves it years later? And if yes, what is the job?

I hope there are more yeses than nos.

Thanks for reading if you did,

K