Friday, August 29, 2008

What do I want to do when I grow up?

DD#2 just started her senior year of high school this week. She'll be 18 in 1-1/2 weeks. A lot of people say she should have decided by now what she wants to do with the rest of her life. However, DD#2 says she has no clue what she wants to do when she grows up. Of course, my hubby jokingly (it had better be jokingly!) quips, "Neither do you." (meaning moi). I'm probably the main one who tries to help DD#2 decide what she wants to do so she can choose which college to apply to. She's already late in applying. She says she's scared. Scared to be in her last year of high school. Scared to be turning 18. Scared to decide what she has to do with the rest of her life. She has she has "no clue". And yet, she is a walking encyclopedia of medical and animal facts. She watches Discovery Health (like right this minute) and Animal Planet all the time. She REMEMBERS all these little details - in particular about animals. She's amazing. She claims it's nothing, it's just because she watches the shows when she's bored and because she's had cats and dogs most of her life. I think she's a born veterinarian or doctor. I sometimes watch these shows with her, I've had cats and dogs all my life and I'm 30 years older than her. I don't remember all these little factoids. I can't tell a female frog from a male one. None of my other kids, in fact no one else I know, pops out with all these animal/medical factoids. I mean, like several daily. She doesn't believe me, however, that this would be a good field for her to pursue. She's afraid that the schooling will be too hard, take too long, and be too expensive. She's afraid she's not really talented or geared toward this field. I could be wrong, but at the very least I see that she has a proclivity to both animals (all animals, not only cats and dogs) and medicine. I've told her that if for some reason she gets into something she doesn't like, that she can always change it, that people switch careers all the time, and she won't be held captive. I'm not working in my original career (BSBA in Accounting) but I'm happy where I wound up. Who knows? Maybe hubby's right and I will switch careers before I die. I've always thought it'd be awesome to be a college professor. It might be fun to be a nutritionist. Maybe I'll become a famous movie star? (Maybe an infamous one. LOL) Who knows? You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

8 comments:

Sandra Cox said...

I always wanted a vet in the family. Had no success with son or daughter. sigh. I also changed majors 5 times in college and still ended up in the wrong field.

Molly Daniels said...

My daughter's the same way. I used to tease her about sending her to Jack Hanna's training zoo in Gainsville, so eventually she'd end up at Sea World, and Mommy could get in free:)

Now she's talking about sticking with dogs...she's only 14. Still plenty of time to reconsider Vet School!

Phoenix said...

I "knew" my whole life that I wanted to teach and/or be an archeologist. By highschool archeology (I took a class) had too much to do with digging and less excitement, so teaching it was. In college I declared a major of Biology. Why? I freaked out and it was what my brother and mother were good at. Fortunately, I gained my brain, re-declared sophomore year as an English teacher. I graduated with secondary ed, russian minor. Am I teaching? HELL NO!!

Tell her not to worry. She'll find her niche.

Bronwyn Green said...

I changed my major four times in college. Tell her to relax - she'll figure it out when it's time. In the meanwhile, she might want to try a part-time job as a vet tech. I have a friend who does that and she loves it.

Katie Reus said...

She's young and has plenty of time to figure out what she wants! I changed majors four times (and schools twice, lol). She'll totally find where she belongs :)

Unknown said...

Yeah, I keep telling her to get a part time job, one for the money, two for the experience, three to try out careers. Even if she just volunteers (she still needs volunteer hours anyway to graduate), she can try things out and get experience.

As for me, I would've switched majors more in college, in fact I tried, but since the VA was paying my way as a disabled vet, they told me they would only keep paying if I stayed in accounting. If I changed, they'd stop paying. I figured a degree, even in a field I wasn't thrilled with, was better than no degree. I figured I could pay for a few supplemental classes on my own dime later.

barbara huffert said...

Oh man I wish I could talk to her. She sounds so much like me. I wish you'd been my mom.

Mith said...

hey tell DD#2 that she's not alone in this...I'm 22 and i still don't know!!!...and yeah I wish i had someone to give me graet advice like you did to DD#2 :)

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