Jobs.

     So I've been thinking about what I want to be when I grow up.  Now, anyone who has read my blog regularly (Hi Earl!) knows that I'm 40 - theoretically a grownup already.  But this is a joke I like to make a lot.  I used to tell my classes that I wanted to be a truck driver when I grow up.  They would think it was funny because I was old as dirt in their eyes, and obviously already had a job - nay, a profession, as their English teacher.  But I always dreamed of a life different from the one I was living.  I love driving, I love long distance road trips, I love truckstops (anyone been to the biggest one in the US?  I think it's in Nebraska).  Therefore, I thought truck driving was my ideal profession.
     When I lost my job last spring, I immediately started looking for another teaching job.  And I've continued to do that for the past six months.  But yesterday I started thinking about WHY I was looking for a teaching job.  Earl said something strange to me - I said, "I just want to teach" and he said, "I don't think you do", and that got me thinking.  Earl is very perceptive - did he know something I didn't even know myself?
     Don't get me wrong.  I love teaching.  I think I'm a really good teacher, and over a decade of students have echoed that back at me.  I always look for new ways to do things in the classroom, I embrace educational technology, and am getting ready to start an AQ course at the end of this month to keep up my professional development in my "off teaching" time.  And I've wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember.  In my Grade 9 English journal I stated that I wanted to be an English teacher at a private school, which is exactly what I spent the last 11 years doing.
     But I keep coming back to the idea that maybe, just maybe, now is the time to look at spending the next half of my working life in a different profession.  Especially if I can get some partial funding to do it.


     So today I started my day in the Service Canada office.  (Not something I recommend as a day-starter, despite how nice the ladies working at the Peterborough office are.)  They directed me to a different office where I met with a woman who asked me, "If you could hold any job, what would it be?".  This is just the beginning.  I have to go back later in the week to take some aptitude tests (the last time I did that was in high school and I got two answers - English teacher and advertising copywriter.  I now hold a diploma in advertising specializing in strategy and copywriting, and a B.Ed.  Where to go from here?) and talk in more detail about what funding might be available to me.
     So I've been thinking... if I could hold any job, what WOULD it be?  And the answer coming back to me is a really strange one.  I think I'd like to do something with babies.  I'm sure I've shared my child-free status on this blog before, but it was a conscious decision on my part not to have children.  I've lost romantic partners, and the respect of a few new Moms and random Christians as a result of my decision, but I see myself as too selfish (or perhaps self-involved?) too give up the freedoms I enjoy as a non-breeder.  But I love babies.  I'm fascinated by pregnancy.  I know I'll never become an OB/GYN at this stage in my life, but I think I'd like to look into midwifery/obstetrical nursing/doula work.  When I shared this with my employment counsellor, she said, "I KNEW you were going to say that!  You have that vibe.", which I also thought was interesting.
     I know this would be a lot of work, and a lot of money (which I'm not exactly rolling in...), and a lot of schooling, but I'd like to look further in to it to see what it would take.  I'm not sure why I'm sharing this with the world - it's kind-of a secret, but writing helps me process thoughts.  (shhhh, keep my thoughts to yourself!)


     So here are my questions for anyone reading.
1.  What is your job?  Do you love it?  Would you recommend it to a stranger?
2.  What job do you want when you grow up?
3.  Anyone working in the baby-related fields mentioned above, what do you love and hate about your job?  Are you glad that you do what you do?  What training was involved?
     I'd appreciate hearing responses from anyone out there - to any or all of the questions.  And interestingly enough, when I peruse the Peterborough job ads, one of the most commonly-found seems to be for truck drivers...  hmmmmmmm.