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Sunday, October 24, 2010

The DECISION has been MADE & ACTION has (finally) been TAKEN!

To the friends who have known me for a long time, they know that a career change has been a long time coming.  Those same friends who have known me for a long time, have also known my life-long dream about working in the medical field.  To those friends, it was probably somewhat surprising that I did not end up in the medical field earlier.  But better late than never!

Deciding to change careers, especially when one finds herself in a very secure, well-paying job, one with excellent benefits, pension and great opportunity for promotion, is a scary prospect.  Factor in several children, and the prospect becomes even scarier.  Any major change is a scary prospect.  Also factor in the unconditional love and support of an incredible husband who believes in me, and the prospect of change becomes truly, if still somewhat vaguely, possible and real.  However, when I will eventually start talking about this upcoming change more-widely in my circle of friends, family and colleagues, I am quite certain many will think I need to get my head examined!  Lol!

I can honestly say that deciding to change careers is neither a mid-life crisis (even though it may appear that way!), nor an impulse decision.  It is something I have been actively and seriously thinking about and dreaming about for about at least the past decade.  However, being pregnant and getting through the early years of three separate newborn babies, required much time and energy.  Family was definitely a priority, over any career.  Now the children are a bit older and all have started school, and I am again in a position to decide if I can truly take the plunge and fulfill my dream of being a medical professional.  I feel like it is now or never (gasp -- I am definitely not getting any younger!)

So with all that as a pre-amble, I can get back to the point of this entry, as outlined by the title.  I have made the decision to change my chosen career field, to go back to school, and to do something completely different with my professional life.  To do something I've dreamt about for as long as I can remember.

I now have my completed application dropped off at the University, my application fee has been paid, my MA transcript has been submitted.  I am just waiting for one transcript to arrive, from a school I spent my first year of university life attending.  Once that arrives, my file should be complete, unless the university asks for some clarification of something.

It feels GREAT and somewhat unreal, to have actually submitted the application. 

Now I can worry and plan the 'what if's", something that I am surprisingly good at (it is a honed skill....).  While I am somewhat, relatively confident that I'll get accepted, (my application is strong -- undergraduate degree was finished Magna cum laude, MA was top of my graduating class, almost 1,000 hours of volunteer work in the medical field), until I have that acceptance letter in hand I will remain somewhat on edge.  After all, I'm not fresh out of high school, like many of my classmates will be.  However, I have other valuable qualities and talents to bring to the job, gained by life-experience and real-world, on the job, experiences, that those fresh out of high school don't have yet.  So it is all a balance and trade-off.  But from everything that I've been reading, I also certainly won't be the only mid-career aged woman there.  In fact, there should be quite a contingent of us 'older' students. 

I will fully relax and fully believe that this is actually happening to me, when I hold that acceptance letter in hand.  

Wish me luck and join me in my journey!!!

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