In my span of years I have worked many jobs. Most jobs I worked was not due to enjoyment or working towards a goal of climbing the ladder to a higher status. Most jobs I worked were to provide for my children. I wrote a resume once, listing all the jobs I worked up to the time I was 58 years old. The resume was five pages long on work experience. Although I have worked many different job types, there were several I really did enjoy working at, but were not what I would have called a dream job. My heart desired to do something different, although I was enjoying the work I was performing.
From childhood, through high school and as a young adult, my dream was to become a veterinarian. I married early after high school, and the man I married said college was not affordable. I soon became a mother, then divorced and was a single mother. Although I still dreamed of being a veterinarian, the expense of college, the time, and the responsibility of raising my child made the dream just a dream.
Several years went by and I married another man, and had three more children. Circumstances worked out for me to have my second job I dreamed about – being a horse trainer and raising horses. I became a certified horse trainer and riding instructor, one of the first during that time period. But I was never able to do this job full-time as I had to work and provide for my children. My spouse had other things he thought was more important to put his earnings than in the household budget. I finally made a decision to divorce, during the divorce the horses and property were dissolved, leaving me with two children to support.
I attended college with dreams of becoming a school teacher. I enjoyed teaching youth how to ride horses and good horsemanship skills. I loved teaching my children various things. But the needs of the children were the first priority. Their need of having me home to help with their lives, was more important than working a job, attending college and doing homework. My children needed my time when I was not working.
I did accomplish earning two associates degrees and being able to teach pre-school and kindergarten, as well as work with children in daycares. Each state has different requirements in order to teach pre-school, kindergarten or work daycares. When I moved to Texas, I did not want to go through the additional college classes to obtain license to work in these fields. College takes money, and I did not have the money to spend and refused to get more student loans.
Currently, I am being trained to become a meat cutter. Not my dream job, but a job I enjoy. I do not desire to look at numbers and computer screens all day, although I am very good at these types of jobs. I want a job with diversity and where I can move around, not sit in one chair year after year. I have not fully understand my enjoyment of being a meat cutter. I only know I enjoy the work.
I do know I am now too old to be training horses, or to attend college for nine years to become a veterinarian. I enjoy raising the sheep instead of horses. Although I make some income from the sheep farm, the sheep flock is not large enough at this time to provide enough income for the household needs. I am working on increasing our numbers in the flock and have hopes of reaching the goal of sheep providing the income instead of a job away from the farm.
I heard a motivational speaker once say to find what you enjoy working at doing, then find a way for people to pay you for it. I guess I am still working on this.
amtolle
Me, Myself and I 