I've been a stay-at-home mom for over 3 1/2 years. Part of the time I was employed but did the work from home. Prior to getting pregnant my jobs were diverse & hard to classify - mostly I was in service to communities via AmeriCorps, A*VISTA, or church programs, but almost always with non-profits.
Now my kids are old enough to easily leave with babysitters, and my older one will be in preschool starting this fall. I'm settled in my new house, my neighborhood, my psyche. I'm ready to branch out and find something to engage my creativity & abilities outside of just the home & kids.
The problem is that I don't know where to begin. I've had diverse experience and I have diverse interests & abilities, so I don't know how to categorize myself or narrow the field of what I might even look for.
In no particular order, I have experience and/or a passion for the following:
- natural parenting
- cooperatives
- organic gardening/cooking/eating
- community organizing
- herbal medicine/natural health organizing as well as in practice
- customer service
- being a waitress
- being a self-driven secretary, including writing/editing a monthly newsletter
- natural pregnancy/labor/birth, including working with a midwife & doula, home birth, water birth, sharing birth stories, nurturing a community of women, dispelling fears
- making my own baby food
- knitting
- making cards
- political & social justice action
- LGBTQ advocacy
- writing, proofreading, editing
- music - anything related to piano playing, singing and choirs
- house & commercial cleaning, primarily with all natural/non-toxic cleaning products
- the world of church & organized religion, primarily with CRC in the past and UCC now
- working with/on a board of directors
I'm sure there are several other categories and I'm sure I'm not at all unique. Most people have diverse interests & abilities. My challenge is trying to narrow any of it into a field that I'm interested in actively looking toward for employment -- or even simply a creative engagement for myself. I don't know how to sell myself if I can't even focus on one area of my interest & ability. If I choose one field it forces me to pass by the others which I tend to be unwilling to do.
So what do YOU do? What tips do you, my friends & family, have for me? How did you narrow your field of interests & abilities to seek out something to keep you busy? Or did you wait for something to find you? I'm starting to become restless but I don't know where to begin.
1 comment:
I don't have any sage advice, other than to say that it doesn't have to be one thing or the other.
On your list I see 'skills' and 'interests'. Ideally you'd look for a job in a field of your interest that required a specific set of your skills.
You might decided to find a job in one field but spend some time volunteering in another. And don't forget that in time you may move from one field to another. The choice you make now does not have to be set in stone forever.
Good luck! I know you will find something fulfilling to do and the employer who eventually hires you will have made a great decision!
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