Monday, November 26, 2007

I don't know what I want to be when I grow up

Okay. So I'm still behind getting my blogs done. Need to do a bunch of "choice of topic" ones. Put them off because I can't seem to come up with what I would consider a relevant topic. The first thing that came to mind is talking about the fact that I'm in my fifties and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I don't know how this happened. Part of the issue is getting married at 19, starting to have children at 23 and being a stay at home mom until my youngest was 3, I was then in my 30's. I had attended Plymouth State College for 3 years but dropped out to follow my husband to West Virginia University so he could get his Masters. (We still had no children at that point.) I finally went back to school to finish my Bachelor's and had the opportunity to get a full time job working with Girl Scouts which I have done for 14 years. I've always had a strong interest in education hence I've enjoyed doing training as part of my position.

When my children were growing up I always loved pointing them in the right direction when it came to research and that is why I decided to follow the Library Media Specialist route when the certification became available at PSU in 2004. Now I'm just one course away from completing my Master of Education. It's has become fairly clear to me that I am going to have a very difficult time getting my foot in a school district as a LMS but regardless I am thrilled that I will be accomplishing my Master's degree. What I have discovered through my elective courses for my degree is that I really love technology and although I struggle with it I'm wondering whether I can carve a place for myself as a computer education teacher.

I'm hanging on to Girl Scouts until January 2009 because I will be eligible for early retirement due to restructuring that is occurring at the council and GSUSA is offering people a package. I've been ready for a change for a while and now it only makes sense to see it through. In the meantime I'm a little apprehensive of what I'll do in future. I think that one of my problems is that I am interested in a lot of things: nature, outdoor education, media specialist, computer education (to name a few). I envy people that seem to have figured out what they wanted to be by the time they were 30. I fear that age discrimination is going to work against me, but I'm not going to give up. Of course, there is also the issue that I really don't plan on moving to find a new job. I love New Hampshire. Plan on seeing other parts of the country but love the seasons here. Time will tell.

Hmmm.... rocket scientist...... no....too much math.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

my district is looking for a media specialist for next year.

Pat said...

Thanks for the heads up. Sunapee is a bit of a haul from Moultonboro although I have applied to positions simply to have an opportunity to interview. Very competitive job market. When the PSU certification for media specialist began it was considered a critical shortage area. No longer and there are lots of people getting their certification in New Hampshire.