Thursday, February 4, 2010

Process of Elimination

For the past year, I have been plagued by one of the ultimate questions: What do I want to be when I grow up?

This is something that normally starts in elementary school. Flash back to third grade when our school had a Career Day. We were supposed to dress up as whatever we wanted to be when we grew up. People dressed up as doctors, football players, ballet dancers, all the usual. I had no idea what I wanted to be, even then. I didn't want to be any of those stereotypical careers. So I donned a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt and tucked a pencil behind my ear: voila! cartoonist! Of course, as soon as I got to school, people started teasing me about wanting to be a mouseketeer, but that's besides the point.
Fast forward to senior in high school. Still didn't have a clue what I wanted to do with my life. The only thing that really interested me in high school was acting. But unless you're really talented, you can't really make a career out of that. I figured I could decide in college. When I received news that I had been accepted at the conservatory at Webster University, I felt this huge wave of relief. (After all, you have to be marginally talented to get accepted there, right? That's what I told myself.) "This is it! I don't even have to be plagued by the question of what I want to major in- it's all done for me!" That lasted until midway through my second semester when it dawned on me I probably couldn't make a living acting in St. Louis. And I really didn't feel like moving to LA.
Thus started the process of finding a new major. After experimenting with Journalism, Psychology, and Marketing, I landed on Communications. Safe, right? It encompasses a lot of areas, and the skills can be brought to any career. (This is what I told myself, anyway.)

So here I am again. Wondering what I want to do.
It really is a process of elimination with me. There are a lot of careers I know I do NOT want to pursue: doctor, construction worker, dancer, athlete, etc. But there are a lot of areas where I am intrigued: speech pathologist, physical therapist, librarian, yoga instructor, professional crafter (if only this one were real! I would be superb at this!).

So where do I go from here?