Thursday, May 16, 2013

Sixteen // Overcoming Challenges


Day Sixteen: Something difficult about your "lot in life" and how you're working to overcome it.

I certainly wasn't dealt a bad hand of cards. In fact, I'd say that I am pretty lucky in that sense. My family has been able to provide me with everything I could ever want or need, and I could never thank them enough for that.

However, I would have to say that something that I'm working to overcome right now is discovering what it is that I want to do with my life. When I graduated 3 years ago, I thought I had it figured out. I would work for my sorority for two years, take some pre-requisites for Grad School, and eventually go to Grad School for Occupational Therapy.

Well, that plan didn't quite work out and the summer after I graduated, I found myself scrambling to find something to fill my time as I dealt with the depression of graduating and trying to get things together quickly. I found a part time job in retail, and started taking classes at a community college that fall to get a head start on working towards Grad School. As I completed my second semester of Human Anatomy & Physiology, I realized that maybe this wasn't what I wanted to do with my life, and I had lost the passion that I thought I had for the field. I ended up full time at my retail job, and figured that I would try to work my way up in the company.

That plan sounded great for a whole year. I was promoted a few times, loved the women I worked with, and fell in love with the company. I was happy to go to work, the politics weren't getting to me (yet), and I didn't mind working the crazy hours. It's not like I had a TON of friends in this area, so I was just happy to be getting out of the house.

It all changed in the fall of 2011. We got a few new people at work who changed the dynamics of everything. People were fighting over petty things, I had made a few friends and was happier with my life outside of work. I was being assigned the closing shift 3-4 times per week, and was just not enjoying my job anymore. I had to get out. I was applying to 15 jobs a day, working with recruiters, and just trying to keep my head above the water.

Over the last 18 months, this has been my life. My parents are taking the heat for most of it, having to listen to me complain incessantly about how much I hate going to work. I struggle with the fact that my Psychology Degree doesn't really get me anywhere except to Grad School which is something that I'm not 100% sure of. I'd really like to discover what I want to do with the rest of my life so I can get a move on it, but I just don't have the time for soul searching. 

I struggle with this every. single. day. 
I make lists of fields that I should be looking into. 
I apply for hundreds of jobs per week and receive absolutely no feedback. 
I have no idea what I want to be doing in life, I only know what I don't want.

I know that I am not the only twenty-something dealing with these sorts of things, and while that does give me comfort sometimes, I really wish I could get things together.

What kinds of things are you struggling with right now?
How have you dealt with it?
And, how did you figure out what you wanted to do with your life!?

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