Things have been going a lot
differently than planned. The coaching job I was so excited about in
my last post fell through. I had a few more interviews after that,
and they didn't come through either. The time came when I had to look
for any job in the world that would give me a paycheck, whether it
was in the health field or not. I really thought I'd be luckier than
that. I did not want to be a person who got a graduate degree that
she wouldn't use. (An undergrad degree that I didn't use? Fine. But
TWO degrees and neither of them is used? Come on. I know it happens,
but seriously, come on). Anyway, I just started a job editing English
papers for students. It's something that's sort of up my alley,
considering my writing background. And it's something that's totally
absorbing (which I haven't had in a while and am glad for). And it's
challenging. That's because I'm really not supposed to just “edit.”
Or rewrite things. Or correct things. As much as I want to. Being a
tutor, I'm supposed to note certain things and explain what the
problem is without giving the answer. It doesn't sound hard, but it
is. Especially when you can't even address everything that's wrong in
a paper. You have to address the “higher order concerns” first.
Then if you see something that recurs throughout the paper, you note
it the first couple times and then hope that they search the rest of
the paper on their own for more cases of the mistake. Yes, writing is
something I enjoy, so the job is good in that sense. But when you
can't necessarily do things the way you want and you have to follow
certain protocol and meet deadlines, that can take some of the
enjoyment out. And it does get tedious.
Basically, what I've been turning over
in my head is the question of whether I did the right thing in going
back to school in an attempt to change careers or whether I could
have found something like what I'm doing now and been satisfied with
an okay job. I think I did what I had to do. I had to get out and
explore something else that was interesting to me because I felt
stuck. And I'm still going to try to get something I went to grad
school for. (My job now is part-time so I can keep looking).
If I'm lucky and do get a health
coaching job, will I face a similar issue with the writing / editing
thing? Where in theory it's something I enjoy but in the workplace it
becomes less enjoyable for whatever reason? I don't know, but I can't
worry about that sort of thing. Not yet, anyway. I have to be of the
mind that I still have something to offer, something to contribute in
that field. And it has a lot to do with the details and questions I
asked myself about other jobs I had (including the one I have now).
Like are you at your optimal health when you're doing something
that's “okay”? Is it a matter of simply being busy? Is it about
being challenged? What about freedom and structure in the workday?
Are you okay with sitting for most of it and just moving around on
breaks? Is it better to have something that's project-based rather
than meeting some sort of quota? To have something where you do the
same thing all day or where you have a variety of tasks? When I made
the decision to leave the types of jobs I had (which were mostly
doing the same thing all day – which can be good and bad) I was
sort of investing in the idea that I'd get to explore those questions
with people for a living. And figure it out for myself in the
process. (I know it might be a little bit of a stretch to connect
health and wellness with that stuff when mostly it's connected to
nutrition and exercise. But I'm connecting it all. I'm interested in
it all. So whatever). So I guess the bottom line is that I'm good
with what I'm doing. I didn't expect that I'd be doing an unrelated
job again while I continue to look for what I really want, but
sometimes that's just the way of the universe.
