It was a good choice. After all, she loved her own nursery school teacher, who was pretty and fun and had taught the little girl important lessons like how to make macaroni into jewelry and how to make a mean batch of chocolate pudding. True, the little girl didn't have a broad scope of career opportunities at age 4, but she was content with her choice, and unwavering in her determination to teach nursery school.
She never faltered from the career path she had precociously chosen, and found herself declaring early/childhood education as her college major. Naturally, she took all the required, obligatory courses that would lead her smoothly to that career. While studying childhood idiosyncrasies and teaching techniques, she envisioned the nursery school she would one day own. She planned to buy a small house with a cozy backyard large enough for a sandbox and a swing set. Her students would adore her, and she them.
She approached her stint as a student teacher with the same enthusiasm as a little girl poised over a game of hopscotch. She was nervous and excited, but knew she had the skills and the desire to succeed.
But within days -- indeed, hours -- of stepping into the world of high-strung, inattentive, overactive, noisy rug rats, she realized she had made a huge mistake. Where was the mixer for pudding making? Where was the gold spray used to make macaroni glitter? Unfortunately, times had changed. Gone were the days of private nursery schools, and so was her dream. Her nightmares now focused on finding a job in dreaded daycare. Although those classes were still manned by nursery school teachers, she knew she was not the woman for the job.
Dejected and disillusioned, she walked away from her dream and dropped out of college with a thud, nine credits short of a degree. Elementary education was the only career she had ever thought about, and basically the only courses she had taken in college. She had nothing to fall back on, and no other experiences to draw from. Her whole life and academic career had been funneled into the very small vat of what she thought she would love.
It wasn't until she decided to finish her degree, some 20 years later, and had to select three electives, that she discovered her true passion. She had the opportunity to take feng-shui, fencing or the fine art of cake decorating. She could have signed up for quilting, calligraphy, bowling, basket-weaving, writing or women's right.
She chose the last two, and a whole new world opened up. She continued on, past graduation, taking courses she thought might interest, or at the very least amuse, her, and it was only then that she finally found her niche.
You will, too. Don't limit yourself. Take that obscure elective. Broaden your view, and I'll bet you'll like what you see. There's a whole world of opportunity in college, at work and in life to explore and experience things you might otherwise simply ignore. Try everything, and discover what you're good at. Try something different and you may unearth what you have a true talent for. Don't build your life around a career. Build a career around what makes you happy.
If anyone had told that little 4-year-old girl that she'd grow up to be a writer, she would have laughed. But check out the byline. It's me.
