You Ask, I Answer, Take 2

It's time for the second installment of "You Ask, I Answer."  You can expect these posts to show up on Tuesdays and Thursdays for as long as I have questions to answer, so keep them coming!  I'm totally having fun reading the list of questions and pondering my answers to them.  I think you're going to learn all sorts of things that you never knew about me!

Today's installment comes from Johanna in Germany, who asked:

What job (profession) did you want to have (when you are grown up) when you were a child?

I had to think hard about answering this one, Johanna!

I wasn't one of those kids who dreamt a lot about reality!  I really didn't spend much time thinking about what I'd be when I grew up.  I tended to live in imaginary worlds that I had created and fill the shoes of characters I created, and I didn't often think about what the actual future would be like!

At various times I wanted to be a doctor, a nurse, the owner/trainer on a huge equestrian farm, a writer, an olympic synchronized swimmer, a counselor, and a teacher.

The biggest ones, and the characters that tended to show up in all of my imaginary worlds were always medical.

A few of those made the actual careers list.

When I started university for the first time, and began my history degree, I was convinced that I would graduate with my bachelor's degree in history, and then pursue a teaching degree (in Alberta you take a two year after degree to become a teacher) and spend my life teaching high school social studies.  I considered other options, but after enrolling in a highly academic high school that reinforced that I excelled easily at subjects like English literature and history, and less easily in sciences, I was convinced that I wasn't a "sciency" person, so my childhood fascination with all things medical (which, by the way continued in my long term love of pretty much ALL medical television dramas and comedies) was set aside in favor of history.

At some point, midway through that first degree I realized that I really don't enjoy teaching in a large group setting, and that teaching wasn't what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  I decided (since I'd already invested so much time and money, and wasn't sure which direction I would ultimately go) to finish up the degree in history, and while it wasn't the most practical degree, I haven't regretted it.  I loved the time I spent studying, particularly since I focused on church history, and it very much informed my faith and spirituality.

These days, after three years of working for a small insurance company, losing my job, and all the bumps and bends in the road that the last year has held, I'm pursuing schooling again, and this time I'm going back to that childhood dream and working on getting accepted into a nursing program.  I also still dream of one day getting a masters degree in counseling, simply to round out my ability to help people on a physical, emotional and spiritual level.