I would love to be a Nurse; not an RN but a PN to have the knowledge and education and pride of accomplishment!

When I wanted to go to school I didn't have the money or time.

Now that I am retired and have a little more of both I am too old at 61 and I don't have that many working brain cells so I would never be able to finish.

I would encourage everyone to follow their dream before it's too late.

A nurse or an elementary school teacher. I was a candy-striper at the VA hospital and loved it. I also volunteered at a nursing home when I was a teenager. In sixth grade I was a tutor for reading for 2nd and 3rd graders. I loved that.

Like B2Y, I learned that I probably wouldn't do well as a nurse but in some other capacity of caring in the hospital.

I'm glad I didn't pursue the teaching route. Things are so different now than they were when I was in elementary school.

Ultimately, I got to do what I loved. I stayed home with each of my boys till they were old enough to go to preschool. By that time I was ready to get out of the house and so were they!

I think if I had not gotten married quite so young I would have taken a different route. Who knows? But I'm not complaining.

What?!?!?!????? You mean I have to grow up???? That is SO NOT FAIR!!!

let's see, I wanted to be a vet when i was a kid, then in high school I decided I liked the idea of criminal psychology, then after a year of studying serial killers and bad guys, i decided that was not the life for me...

ended up 2 semesters away from my accounting degree, which I plan on finishing if I ever get my life back from this whole MS thing, even though accounting isn't really what I want to do anymore.

I have worked all kinds of places and I can tell you the two most rewarding jobs were the least paying. The first was volunteering with rescue squad and the other was working for the county helping train peple with mental disabilities to join the workforce, and have productive lives. It was a very rewarding job that paid minimum wage!

Tell DD to find something she loves that makes her happy and that is all that matters. Life is too short to be unhappy 40 hours a week.

You are never too old to go to school and learn. You could do this Janie! Take an online class. NAU has some awesome online programs.


I wanted to do this as well but things didn't work out that way. My mom always told us kids to get some sort of post secondary training/education as that way we always had something to fall back on. She was right on this one. I needed that as I never planned on being a single mom.

Of course, my mom always told me that I would do great as a home economics major. And she knew what I could do to a kitchen in a heartbeat. LOL As DBF tells me, he did not fall in love with me because of my cooking. The rest of home economics I do just fine in - just keep me out of the kitchen unless it is to clean.

Isn't this the truth. My volunteer positions were the best and most rewarding.

I did get out of health care and started to pursue a career in remodeling/design. I loved it and was trying to figure a way I could go back to school and get my interior design degree. Then, those bad words we all know around here, hit. My new career came to an abrupt end. At least for now.

I think I may be entering my 2nd chidhood. Let's see, in my 1st childhood, I wanted to be a Ballerina or stage actress. (My Mother took me to see a lot of Broadway shows )

This time, when I grow up, I want to be an Accountant, Wife, Mother, GrandMother.....OH wait.....I am..

I never had the fantasy , but it is what I ended up with... still waiting for the grandma phase though!

As a child, all I wanted to do was drive an 18-wheeler. My dad said he'd kick my butt from home to Sunday if I ever did that!! He let me "drive" his log truck a few times, but I don't think I could have done that full time.

I took one of those career/personality tests in college. The #1 career it suggested...Catholic Nun. I wasn't Catholic until after I got married! However, I did entertain the idea of training to become a youth minister in the Methodist church.

I majored in business and math education in college, but realized my senior year that teaching high school was not my calling. I thought of switching majors to electrical engineering, but that was going to require 2 more years. I got married instead and moved on to other things.

TKRIK ...I'd be no help to your daughter! I never did figure out what I wanted to do...I just went with where life led me.

When I was in high school, I wanted to teach. Then I decided I wanted to be a medical technologist. Didn't follow through on that...
After birthing 4 kids, I got a camera from DH for Christmas and got pretty good at that...took classes...didn't understand lighting ratios, so I decided there's no way I was going into photography...
Then I went back to community college to be a nurse...took anatomy and physiology & bio classes and loved them...but realized I don't like touching people...so I got my associate's in English.
When my oldest was going to college I asked DH, can I go back and finish? Of course, being the angel he was (is) he said sure...so I majored in English with a writing emphasis...and I loved every minute of it.
I was in a project several years ago that in which I wrote a first draft of a novel in 11 months, 30 min. per day...and I surprised myself by finishing it. It's horrible, but I was so proud of my accomplishment. And my poetry was well-liked by my professors in school.

I worked in a bookstore, worked as an instructional aide teaching below level 1st grade readers to get them up to grade level, and worked as a server in a breakfast/lunch restaurant until my symptoms got in the way of my doing a good job, so I had to quit.
Since then I've been my inlaws' driver and med/dr. overseer.

I actually started a blog last month, but have only written on it a couple of times. It's great as a creative outlet...gets all those thoughts spinning in my head down on "paper", if you will. Writing is my passion...my therapist has strongly suggested using it to get clarity and to add creativity to my life.

So tell your daughter that whatever she studies in college, her education will be a life-long pursuit...and as my dad told me, "The best teacher is experience...books don't teach you anything about life." He was one of the smartest undereducated people I ever knew.

I never knew what I wanted to be, when I was young, and silly. I was envious of others who displayed talents at things, like music, or cooking, or whatever....I just seemed so plain, and ordinary.

I was talked into a paramedic class, by a friend who didnt want to do it alone. I decided to keep him company, and LOVED it! I was hooked from there on out. it was medical stuff for me.

I still refuse to grow up.

Tricia, I graduated with a Master's degree in Political Science back in 1980 and the economy was even worse then it is right now. The only job I was offered was as an unpaid intern in Washington, D.C. I could not afford to move there and not get paid. So I had to move home. I was desperate so I went to the Navy recruiting office. After taking the tests, they wanted to send me to officer candidate school. They suggested flight training since I had 20/20 vision. Instead I said I wanted to go into intelligence. They agreed. After reading the information on the school and thinking about my situation, I chickened out. Instead I worked in a gift wrapper at a jewelry store, at a greenhouse, as a swimming pool manager, and a substitute teacher. After a year and a half, I went back to school to work on my doctorate and was given my own class to teach. So that is how I ended up being a professor.