Friday, January 16, 2009

When I grow up I want to be a ...???????????

When I was a kid I always knew what I wanted. First of all I was a far from being Peter Pan as possible. I definately wanted to grow up. In fact I think I hated being a kid. I was extremely headstrong and independent and couldn´t wait to be able to rule over my own life.

Well, I didn´t "have to" wait that long. When I was 15 I got pregnant and moved in with my then boyfriend (now husband of 12 years) and became a "grown up". We finished school, had another child and moved overseas to Denmark to go to university. At that time I had no doubt in my mind what I wanted to do. I wanted to study business and management. It was a pretty "safe" choice, probably marked by the fact that money had been tight in the past years. I´d be pretty sure to get a job in the field when we eventually would move back to Iceland and I´d probably be able to earn a salary big enough to feed all the children I was hoping to have in the future.
When I think back I realize I might have been focusing more on what I thought other people were expecting of me than what I truely wanted most. I was choosing the easy way out. Something which is very un-like me.

I was lucky. I really liked my studies and thought that almost all my courses were very interesting. I finished in 2005 and could very well see myself working within this field for the rest of my life. Only problem was that this was "hypothetically speaking", since I didn´t have any relevant work experience to back my theory.

Fast forward. After my studies I stayed home with our (then) 4 children until in January 2008 when I thought it was time to go out and try out what I had spent 5 years and $$$$$$$$$$$$$ on studying. But at this point I just couldn´t see myself being "owned" by some company who would demand my services almost 24/7 and having to have a bad conscious if the kids were sick and I couldn´t be in the office. I decided to start teaching marketing(something I had always pictured myself liking to do) at a great business oriented highschool, letting me combine my interest in business and marketing with a family friendly workplace (with the advantage of sharing my kids school holidays).

This is what I´m doing now. I like my job and I love my work hours. But I don´t LOVE my job. I really wish I did. I´m the kind of person who always thought I would do a job I loved, something I had a passion for. I kind of envy people who have a passion for their day to day job and I honestly don´t like envying people. Bad feeling and there´s no pay-off.

Sounds like I´m going through my mid-life crisis at 30! After all that would only make sense, considering that I always wanted to be 20 years older than I really was.

I need to do some soul searching and be honest to myself, first and foremost. I wonder what I´ll come up with (actually I think I know, I´m just not ready to shout it from the rooftops yet).

1 comment:

  1. It can take a lifetime. At least, that's what I tell myself, since I still don't know what I want to be when I 'grow up.'

    And, ohmigosh, your baby is absolutely darling!

    ReplyDelete