Change… it happens to all of us

I’ve been thinking a lot about change lately. Not the welcomed kind you find hidden in your couch cushion or car seats, but the kind of change that determines your path. Lord knows I’ve had a lot of change in my life thus far. I am still coping with becoming a grandmother at 35 (M & I still haven’t spoken), getting used to a new house and all of its positive and negative issues ($5000 worth of plumbing repair we didn’t know about…oh joy) and living in a new location.
Now the change I am most focused on is what the hell I’m going to do for a career. I am fortunate to have a job currently as many, many people across the country are without, so I’m not bitching about that, I am however bitching about how stable or secure my current job it.

I don’t foresee it lasting past the first six months of 2011 if things don’t improve.

So I ask myself what I will do. I peruse all the online job sites only to be discouraged. I don’t want to deal with employment agencies, and be subjected to hours of seeming useless exams and reviews for shit I’ve been doing for years. On the other hand I current have an Associates Degree which I received in 2008 which sits nicely framed at home collecting dust. Most companies within my chosen field for which I desire to work for require 3-5 years experience and skills they don’t even teach in school.

Ugh give me a break. How can I gain the necessary skills and experience if you won’t hire me to begin with, and the one’s that might don’t pay enough for me to support myself let alone a family. So what do I do? I think about what I have done my life experience, what am I really good at and how can I make that into a sellable, profitable business. I am thinking of venturing out into the world of self-employment.

How brave of me, in this economy (stupid is more like it) but I have to do something. I am tired of working to help make other people wealthy and in turn be left out in the cold when they no longer need me. I have a skill set that many companies advertise for even if they want documented proof your worth something i.e.… job experience. I have the ability to sell myself (get your mind out of the gutter…) and love working with people.

I cannot limit myself to a card board cut out of what I think I should be because I am too afraid to try something new. I figure if I put together my plan of action now and prepare myself for that inevitable pink slip when it comes I won’t be so devastated and maybe, just maybe I will have a solid back up plan. By investing in myself I am only making a change for the better!

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. --Reinhold Niebuhr