Have you ever not known what you wanted to do?
By katsmeow1213
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
United States
October 23, 2008 8:07am CST
With the way the world is today, it's almost impossible to survive without a college degree. I dropped out of high school when my son was born, and never made it back to college. I kept putting it off until life was easier. When my oldest was born I said I'd go to college when he went to kindergarten. But before he went to kindergarten I had my twins. So then I said I'd go to college when they were in kindergarten... but then I had another baby, and another. So now I'm a stay at home mom of 5, my youngest is 9 months old, and my husband works 50-60 hours a week and we're barely surviving.
Thanks to the internet, I have the option of taking online courses to get a degree of some sort. I have looked into a school called Bryant and Stratton. My mom went there for a degree while she was pregnant for my sister. It's not a bad school. They help with career placement and everything.
Well now I have 2 concerns when it comes to taking these online courses. The first is about finding and affording a sitter once I have my degree and a career.
The second however is that I really don't know what course I want to take. I don't feel like I have any real skills or desires to do the courses they offer. I just keep looking at the course outlines and thinking "That's not for me".
I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life. I'm not even sure I want to take a class at all. What I really want to do is get a part time job in customer service like I used to have, perhaps as a waitress or something. I enjoy those types of jobs. The only real reason I'm even debating college right now is because of the economy and how difficult it is to survive these days. But I can't get a customer service job right now because I certainly wouldn't be able to afford child care.
Aside from going to school possibly... my plans at the moment are to wait until my youngest is in school and then get a part time job during school hours.
Have you had a problem like that? Do you want to go back to school? Do you know what you want to be or what courses you'd take if you went to school?
3 responses
@gemini_rose (16264)
•
23 Oct 08
I have been feeling exactly the same as you, I have stayed at home for the past 9 years, and while I am busy with the house and children I have not really had the chance to think much about MY future, that kind of got put away the moment I had my second child. My hubby has always made sure that his wage has been enough that I do not have to go back to work and because the current company he works for is in dire straits he is retraining for a new job that will actually bring even more in. So basically I may never have to go to work because of money, but the thing is my daughter will start school next year, only part time for a year, but still I am going to be alone. I have started wondering what I can do, I want to do something, I have lots of ideas but none of them seem to have any point to them. I just do not know what I want to do, I do not want to go out and get a job that I do not enjoy but I have no qualifications for anything other than bar or care work! I am going along the lines of I use a computer a lot, why not learn to use it properly and have found some free online courses that I can take to learn properly, and then if I find that OK, maybe I can pursue something in computers like web design or something. I just do not know. And the same as you, if I get a job outside the home, I will be fine while the kids are in school, but what do I do in the holidays, it will cost more than I would earn. Unless I can get a high paid job, which with no qualifications is not likely at my age.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
23 Oct 08
That is why I like the idea of customer service, like a waitress or cashier in a grocery store. It's like a disposable job, so I can just tell them what days I need off, and call in when the kids are sick. If I get fired it's not a huge loss, I can just get another job.
With those type jobs, usually the high school and college kids work them when they aren't in school, so that will work in my favor.
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
23 Oct 08
I've been thinking about doing a college course online too. I have no idea what I would want to do either. We don't really have any money for me to do any of it right now anyways, but if I managed to get the money I would have to be sure that is something I would want to do. I'm not a real big people person. I tend to have anxiety attacks if I have to talk to someone in person. So my ideal job would be something I could do from home. Right now I couldn't work full time because we can't afford daycare plus I have no one to get my daughter off the bus. And next year I'll have to drive our middle one up to preschool and pick her up. But eventually I would like to do courses online maybe for medical transcription or something like that because I can do that from home.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
23 Oct 08
I'm not even sure I could do that much. Some days I'm just not at all interested in doing things I feel I should be doing. I tell ya every day I have to fight myself to even get on ChaCha. Some days I'm fine with it, other days I don't want to go near it. I'm pretty sure that's how I'm going to be when I have a real job.
@wrangel15 (1443)
• Philippines
24 Oct 08
I graduated from the course Applied Mathematics but I now work as a software engineer. It is somewhat related anyway.
I just discovered during college that I also want to work with computers. It was during college that just started using a computer. That's why I took computer science related subjects as electives for my course list. God is so good for giving me the opportunity to work in an environment I really like.
