Do you ever find yourself changing career goals in your life, yet always coming back to one or two things that make your heart sing? Or maybe even more..?
I consistently find myself returning to working with children and writing.
I am 27 years old. I started writing around the age of 16. I bought my first journal after an initially difficult time in my life.
I haven’t stopped writing since.
I started sharing my work when I was 20, and something about it was so freeing. You know the talk about runner’s high, that’s what I feel like when I share a piece of work that I am extremely proud of.
For a while, I wasn’t quite sure what felt so good about it until someone said to me, “Wow, thank you for sharing this. You helped me so much.” Right then and there I knew I wanted to help people.
One year into college, I geared my studies in towards Middle Years Education. Throughout school I simply continued to share from journals that poised the essence of my emotions.
A couple of years later I graduated a little confused. I knew I wanted to help people, especially children, but I wanted to help on a deeper level.
I’m not saying that teachers don’t help. My goodness, I believe teachers are part of the backbone of the world – helping children to piece together their beings. It is not a job for the faint of heart.
No, I wanted to help on a more physiological level. This is when I figured out I wanted to help “misunderstood” children.
There are too many times children who have behavioral issues are pushed to the side, “She’s just a bad kid.”, “Oh, they weren’t raised properly.”, “Something must have gone wrong early on.”
That’s exactly it. Children and teenagers are still navigating the world. They are becoming self-aware.
The children and teenagers who have behavioral issues need to be noticed for who they are, and what has happened to them or what is happening to them.
I soon realized Child Psychology was one of my callings. The research began, I would have to return to school.
During this time, my partner and I found out I was pregnant. I decided to put schooling on hold.
I wanted a remote career, so I could care for my baby. Thus, I shifted more into my writing career and began studying how to become a freelance writer.
My life continued shifting. Accepting that returning to school was not in my near future was difficult.
It took some time to realize that it’s okay.
It’s okay to take a step back and let life unfold.
It’s okay to take a break and put things in hold.
And it’s okay to take your time coming to terms with everything.
Although I have a long way to go until I reach my main career goal – I am very happy to see where life takes me along the way.
Life has already brought a beautiful, loving, adventurous daughter into my life. She has lightened my darkness. She has become my greatest teacher. She is everything and more.
With her I let my life unfold.
What has mended your heart in a time when life continued shifting?
West Moon Mama 
I think it’s great that you held onto your passions while your life took unexpected twists and turns. It sounds like you were able to pivot when those twists and turns came up. I wish I could say something mended me when life was shifting and changing, but I let a lot of things I cared about fall away when things went south. I am lucky I have a strong relationship and a close family, but I gave up on some of the things I had wanted to do with my life. I think a person needs a guiding star to help them on their way; maybe it’s not a specific end goal like a job, but rather a principle or a passion. If you make the goal the be-all-end-all, when it doesn’t happen, it’s all over. But with a true passion, I think a person can express it and make it work one way or the other.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Hetty! I appreciate your words. 🙂 Sometimes in life things we have to let go of the life we envisioned for ourselves. It’s not an easy task. There is such beauty in being able to see everything you do have.
Career and job goals, I agree, shouldn’t be the end objective. In life, we have to learn to navigate through the change and adapt where necessary. It can be devastating when goals go unaccomplished.
I just hope people know it’s okay to set aside the passion for other vital things in life. Hopefully, not hold themselves to such a high standard for where they “should be” because the only place we need to be is – here and now.
And I completely agree, the career or job doesn’t need to be accomplished. In life a lot of the time we have to learn to navigate through the change and adapt where necessary.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think you make an excellent point about showing people that it’s okay not to meet impossible standards about where they should be. There’s so much nuance and complexity in the matter and every single day is a series of little decisions. Sometimes we just have to say, this is the path I took, now let’s try to make it worthwhile 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Hetty! I agree. Acceptance is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves, and adding a positive spin into our lives is even better. ❤
LikeLiked by 2 people