Job/Life/Choice: If you love what you're doing now, how did you arrive at it?

When I was a teenager I really didn’t know what I wanted to do for a career but I did know I did NOT want to be a Realtor like my parents. I am the namesake to a 100 yr old Real Estate Company and wanted no part of that. So I went to college…washed out of business school and then studied the arts…Radio TV Film to be exact. I wanted to be a cinematographer after it was all said and done. Not much of that in Chicago back when I graduated and the best job I could find sucked. After bouncing around for 6 months and for lack of nothing much better to do, I wound up running a distributorship for a waterproofing product. I started my own waterproofing company as people were asking me to this and that for them. That all went pretty well for 16 years. Got married had my first kid and responsibilities piled up! I was offered a pretty good job with benefits at one of my suppliers and because of the benefits I thought I’d give it a try. 14 years later I now own that company. I never really LOVED my work as much as the passion I have for film making and photography, but my path has provided a roof and security for my family and has given me opportunity to volunteer my time with the Scouts and my community and that is what I really love to do. I do though love my job now as I have my freedom back and there is no better feeling than having total control over your whole life.

The old statement about knowing the truth and the truth will set you free. I found some education and took a forum and it has taught me to be free. Being free is amazing and it changes your view and concepts of everyone and everything.

I’d call it old fashioned catholic guilt, but I’m not catholic. Everyone in my family just naturally guilts me.

I’d probably be a lot more selfish and care free if that were different. I am where I am because of a lot of screw ups and laziness.. topped off with a lot of hard work in the last year.

For many years I commuted each and every day – one-and-a-half hour journey.
Then I decided to work from home as a freelance secretary. No travelling, can work as and when I want and the atmosphere is so relaxing. I am very fortunate and love what I do.

I started learning the harp aged 8, kept it up, did a music degree, did a post graduate teaching certificate, and 15 years after I started learning the harp, I was then teaching and playing it for a living! Happy days! Four years ago I stopped because I moved from the area. I worked at different roles, but quickly realised that the only job I loved was the one I had left behind, so just 5 months ago I came back to the area and to the profession I love. There is no looking back now.

I was lucky enough to marry a man with talents that are prized in the business world. When I was in the working class I had a talent that used to be prized also, bookkeeping comes naturally to me, but computers do that now.

Pure dumb luck.

I never believed in having career aspirations. I just surfed the wave of life. Eventually I kind of realized that I didn’t care so much what I did; I wanted a good boss, who would leave me alone.

Now I want to be a writer. It might happen. Winds are against it now, but at some point, they surely will change.

I was a young lesbian who found herself in the middle of an epidemic wherein many of her male friends were dying. It started as a labor of love. Now, with an additional degree in public health, it is a full time job I get to do with a lot of love.

I always thought I would be a career woman. I was intently focused on my career when I met and married my husband. But after extraordinary backstabbing at the corporate level I left supremely disillusioned. By that time I had two children and I stayed home. I’ve come to love staying at home with my children (I have three). Being at home has allowed me to yank them from school when things got really bad and home school. My kids are happy, well adjusted and educated and we are an extremely close family. I don’t know if I would ever go back to work.

Web and Graphic Design in the Canadian Rocky Mountains is my heaven on Earth <3

How did I discover my love for it? Well, a) I finally listened to my Mum for once! and b) I started to look closely at my strengths and talents as an individual. One day through researching those different talents I came across Web and Graphic Design school courses and SLAP! my life was forever changed!

I believe that when you’re supposed to know, you will know :3

As a very young lad, I worshiped an uncle who was a well known newspaper writer and I decided, with his encouragement, to become a writer too. I pursued that goal by taking lots of English and journalism courses, and during college, I moved to NY to work for a newspaper and then a magazine (most important move of my life!). Later, I became an adverttising creative writer and manager, which turned out to be a fun and very lucrative 25-year stretch in my career. Then I moved into the corporate world, where I continued to write and do related work for another 22 years. I’m retired from corporate life now but still write for bread and for fun.