When I Grow Up...

I was thinking today about my choice of career, and why I chose such a stressful one. On one hand, I love helping people. So much so that it is, quite possibly, the thing that makes me happiest in life. However, when I can't help someone, or when I see someone getting hurt, mistreated, or ignored, it KILLS me. I literally cannot.take.it. I mean, granted, I'd be super social worker in a crisis situation. I have gotten really good, if I might say, at keeping a straight face, and working both quickly and efficiently in an emergent situation. But, and yes, there is a but of course, when the situation has passed or I go home at the end of the day, the stress from it is still there. Something about myself does not allow me to just "let it go". Again, I'm not saying I can't act like I've let it go. I can go on with my usual routine and be so good at fooling everyone that I fool even myself! Yet, somehow, some way, that built up stress has to make its way out of my body and unfortunately, it usually does it in a nasty way. My health suffers.

So, this brings me to my question. Why, again, did I choose social work? Oh yes, I remember, I like helping people. So what are some other ways I could have chosen to do that? If this were a dream world and we could do anything we wanted (in reason), what would I be doing?

1) singing - If I could have ever gotten over stage fright, and took the time to work on my voice, I am confident I could have done at least something with it. In a traveling choir, recording Christian music,kids music something.

2) being an artist - I do have some serious creative juices flowing in my body, I just don't know how to channel them into creating pretty pieces of art. But, it would be fun.

3) being a writer - I have ALWAYS wanted to write children's books to help kids cope with big issues i.e. stories about divorce, death, etc. in ways that children can absorb and understand.

4) a pre-school teacher - This is what I originally really wanted to do. Pre-school age is my absolute favorite. In high school and early college, I LOVED creating themed, weekly lesson plans for this age. A week all about yellow: birds, bananas, giraffes. A week about circles: the sun, a smiley face, an orange. You get the point. I would enjoy this one especially, I think.

Anyway, just my random post for the day. Hope you all are having a good week.

xoxo,
Emily