so today was supposed to be the big day...career counselling appointment...torpedoed by good intentions. i've been talking to the nice folks at the employee assistance program at work, talking a little about my stress, anxiety, sleep problems...i don't think it's really working...anyway, i asked the last counsellor i talked to if they could do any career counselling, and she said she could set me up with an appointment to talk to someone. i assumed she meant 'a career counsellor'. silly me. i guess she thought i needed more therapy or something. the dude i talked to was another shrink. his only good advice was to spend some serious time hearing from friends about career possibilities and suggestions from the people who know me and my strengths and weaknesses and maybe what i might like. it's a wierd deal i guess, cuz i don't know that i could point at you guys and suggest career ideas, but i'll give it some thought. i'd also be appreciative of any book suggestions about being more happy where i am, or reinventing myself, or self diagnosis career test kinda stuff - ya know... self help. but i will never read 'the purpose driven life' ever. i would like to say that if any of y'all are willing to take me up on my asking for advice there will be no bad suggestions, or anything. (kinda like the no stupid questions rule...) i'd really appreciate any thoughts you might have folks...
i'm not real satisfied with being 30 and working in retail, especially when i'm not even low level management. (and they're shutting down a big store - 110 bloor chapters - so i'm guessing it's not good for people looking for promotion to have all these transfers floating around....'bad timing that's all...' story of my life - except for the sarah parts...) i do actually like the customer service part of work - i like to help people. and i like books. and i like talking about books. and i like to help people. it's nice to be rewarded for being a nice guy i guess, and retail life has actually made me a nicer person. that's the single biggest non-benefits thing keeping me at indigo. also i'm still there cuz i'm closer to a promotion at indigo than anywhere else, and i don't know if i have good skills that can earn me any more money than i'm making at indigo without trading health risks or shitty environments or something. i always tell people that there's lots worse jobs than working in a bookstore. i just wish i could get paid well enough to make a life, not just rent.
also i realize that i'm not the only one in this particular boat...it's just become an issue at this point for me. don't know how much of it is turning 30 - hopefully not too much.
i'm thinking about dreams of the life i wanna make with sarah. kid(s)....house....not the storm of fear and stress and worry that i grew up in...opportunities... this dream ain't gonna make itself.
so...maybe it's time to work on this whole thing. i could stay at indigo and work up through the ranks kinda, make a decent living in there somewhere, and not have to incur some debt to get the edumacation. that's definitely an option. i just haven't ever really had any clear idea of my dream job (aside from the nba...) and i'd like to find out if there is a dream job. i know that there are more rewarding and challenging jobs, and some that pay well, but they could still just be a job. maybe that's fine too. i just don't know at this point.
bah...enough ranting.
i had the most wonderful time at michelle's birthday party on saturday night, even though i didn't get to share as many words with everybody as i would've liked to. we'll remedy that in the near future.
sad news from the nba - being down 3 games to 1 to the san antonio spurs is pretty clearly a bad place for steve nash and the pheonix suns to be. (it's a best of seven.) so steve nash might not be playing much longer this season. so sad.
ha ha michelle i didn't put the nba notes at the end this time so you had to read the whole thing...ummm...well actually maybe i did cuz i can't think of anything else to say at this point.
time to go help sarah make dinner. it's beef that's been marinating in a peanutty curry kinda deal for a couple days now. jealous? also you missed the chicken and sausage jambalaya i threw together the other day.
oh yeah on the book front - i've finished 'the delicate storm' and moved on to the new book in the trilogy by giles blunt 'black fly season'. seemed kinda seasonal. also i like the characters. but i really gotta find something really good after this. it occurs to me that i haven't really recommended anything i've read for awhile now. next book's gotta be recommendable. now open for suggestions - go!
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2 comments:
Hey Paul!
You know when I remember you being pretty stoked about a job? When you were working on all those songs for that kids show in Peterborough. And those were good songs too! (I mean it!) You mentioned before that you thought about teaching as a positive career and I think that is a fabulous idea. They are going to be hiring a whole bunch of new teachers in the next few years and if you wanted to work in elementry schools (which I'd recommend)you being a guy would be a real plus. This is one area of life where men are under-represented.
Teaching also lends itself to the creation of the life you mentioned wanting. Being a teacher means being able to spend breaks and summers with your kids, which rules! (as the daughter of a teacher I know what I'm talking about!)And the pay is decent. You can also do cool things like take four years of salary over five years so that you can have a year off to travel, or write music, or play in the NBA, or whatever.
If you don't want to be in the school system you could always try working in a daycare centre. They always want to hire guys too. There's more freedom in daycare (less curriculum) but the pay is shite.
I can totally see you writing songs about math concepts and playing them for your third graders. This is just my opinion, but after reading your post I felt I had to weigh in.
take care,
Jennifer
thanx guys and to everybody else who's chipped in any amount of cents...i've gotten A-support in a emotional good kinda way, B-support in my efforts to effect change, and C-to hear good stuff about me ...very nice. good work team.
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