I’m sorry there is a little bit of strong language in the video but it makes sense in a sec……
As it would happen, I know how Margaret feels, even now I get asked “When are you going to get a job that relates to your degree?”, I’m 27 and been graduated university almost 7 years. Unfortunately paying the bills and support my family where needed comes first. I have been married for almost 7 years and have been a foster parent to a teenage boy for two of those. That isn’t necessary a recipe to try chasing my dream job right now…..
Anyway so I wrote this long reply to Margaret……
Hi Margaret
I’m 27….
At 21 I graduated university. That was in the May. I has a temp job until August, I was then unemployed until the November. I was in my job for four months then was “encouraged” to leave – I think I didn’t fit what they wanted. My next job I stayed in for five years, I did like it but towards the end I hated it, I hated getting up each morning and going to a job that I hated – it sucked!
I worked in an old folks home for about three months – well that was part time during the week and then Saturdays when I started my current temp job. Admittedly this new temp job I really enjoy and really hope that I get made permanent.
I’m 27 I still don’t have it figured out. If it pays the bills (and is legal lol) then that’s better than nothing. So working in my temp job isn’t my dream job but I spend everyday working on spreadsheets and for some strange reason that floats my boat and for now that is good for me. I have three friends at work who when they ask me how I am in the morning it’s because they genuinely want to know and I know that when I do have a bad day and I get hugs because I’m sad it’s because they want to see that I’m okay.
I have a degree in Performing Arts and the closest I get to using it is writing scripts for the church nativity or serenading my colleagues when it’s too quiet. So I don’t have it together and I don’t have my dream job – heck I may never have my dream job but I would say that I’m happy.
If sweeping the floor of the candy store is what you need to do right now to pay the bills or because you enjoy it then do it. So it’s not someone else’s plan but it’s also not their life, it’s yours, you shouldn’t have to apologise for that, at all! Does it make you happy? Does it bridge a gap to the next thing (what ever that maybe?)
Don’t worry lovely. You’ve got time to figure it out – whatever it is for you!
My friend from school is also 27, she’s actually a month older than me. I did the family thing, I got married, I have a foster son. She did the career thing, she’s current in NY doing a Post-Doctorate course and as far as I can tell she is loving NY and all the new experiences she is having – I can’t see me being able to do a Post Doctorate somewhere else in the world, can you? You do what’s right for you.
As the saying goes, it’ll be alright in the end and if it’s not alright then it is not the end.
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Having wrote this I thought a bit more about it, while listening to Christmas songs! Would I rather be in a job that paid loads of money but I hated it or a job that paid above minimum wage but I loved it……? Which would be better……
