The Crossroads and The Signs Pointing To New Career

 Oh hey Divas! Just your favorite Diva here with a semi-clean apartment, listening to focus music on Alexa. School starts for me in three weeks, so I have to turn off the tv set and listen to music to get my focus. The house is quiet and I hope for my neighbors' sake I'm not playing music too loud. (My building is vintage, and when it was built in the seventies/eighties, I don't think anyone was thinking about the future or devices). It's refreshing to listen to music as opposed to being sucked into a game on my tablet with television in the background. 

So maybe I can handle this work from home thing after all. On second thought, I'll pass. There's way too much trouble to get into, starting with the pool in the summer and video games, plus crafts, not to mention naps. 

You get the idea. On with the show. 

For some time, I've had the question of continuing my career as an educator. If I said I didn't love my job, I'd be lying, because I do like it. I like it so much I've stayed in it for over twenty years. Teaching has its ups and downs like any job, and I've said in previous blogs that watching children learn, knowing that I've taught them something new is what keeps me in this field. There is something magical about child development that goes without saying. Children are precious and teaching is one of the most heartfelt, emotional professions one could be in while being grossly underpaid. 

I'm a teacher and I love my job. After two decades, I've reached a crossroads and I'm looking at the signs. By signs, I'm not talking spiritual signs from deep within the universe, I'm talking about the road signs. Do I stay in this field and continue teaching, or branch out? Do I return to school for marketing, combining my love of writing and creating things? 

Developmental psychology is the development of a person from conception through death. Erikson's stages of development are the main component of any developmental psychology course with the entire course being interesting as we go from embryo to elderly. Erikson covers eight stages of development throughout the life span starting with trust during infancy (all about building those relationships the first year of life) and ending with old age, a reflection of our life as look back on relationships, choices, careers, memories and how every moment was a big part of our lives. 

Ask me to repeat the eight stages of development at the moment in person over coffee and I'd be on my phone. Listening to you but on my phone trying to look them up (Grandmother always said I remembered what I wanted to remember). Whatever stage I'm currently in, I look back at nearly twenty-five years and I wonder where in the hell the time has gone, plus I look at where I was when I started teaching, and where I am now. What started out as wanting to be a nanny turned into working in a childcare center with part-time nanny jobs. Add a degree and several courses (in a perfect world I'm a few classes away from a bachelor's in something, somewhere) plus certifications and experience. The twenty-something me entered this field to gain experience to become a nanny, and I stayed. I don't feel that I stayed longer than expected, but I stayed longer than most people would. 

And now I'm considering getting out. To do what and where, I don't know exactly. Yet to get out and do something different for however many years I have left. As I got older, the times have changed and what was once career that I loved has now become a career that I love, yet the setting is not for me. At least I don't think it is. Would I nanny? Yes. I currently work as a part-time nanny for an adorable toddler and her dogs, one of which is obsessed with me. Is there a difference between being a nanny and teaching? Yes, yet the jobs are similar. In teaching, you work with a group of children and their families in a classroom, and when you are a nanny, you work with one family in the family home. As a nanny, you work with your charges one-on-one in social development, plus cognitive and physical development while understanding the child, their age and developmental level. (I remember chatting with a young lady about a teaching position at my then job. After sharing some information with her, she rudely informs me that she wasn't interested, and just " 'doesn't teach' ". I asked her what she thought she was going to do as nanny, and she had no response). 

The idea of changing careers at my age is exciting yet also overwhelming. Can I actually go through with this and if so, how do I go about it? 

Have any of you ever felt like this? Let me know!

With cherry candles and love, 

Dani