Thinking About School....Making Conclusions.

So I thought about school today. I am not sure what brought it up. Maybe the fact that I have seen so many of the people that I grew up with become successful, while I am here wasting away (according to the world's standard).

I have friends who have become nurses and teachers. Friends who have traveled the world and lived in different countries. Friends who have completed college once or twice. Even friends my age, who have Masters Degrees! All I have is a MRS degree with a major in Domestic Engineering. So I am feeling a little bit sorry for myself and beating myself up for not feeling like I have made something of myself.

Don't get me wrong. I love my kids. That is the main reason I haven't gone to school yet. I don't want to have to put them in daycare while they are so little. We cant afford it anyways. Stephan is already in school right now, too. He has been since Jude was 10 days old. My hope has been to go to school as soon as he was done, but at the rate he is going....part time....I may never make it.

I don't know why, like I said before, but I mentioned the whole idea of school at dinner. The idea of how nice it would be for me to go to school so that I could get a degree and actually help our family financially, so that we would not have to live from paycheck to paycheck. Stephan is doing a good job, but I still feel that I need to pull my weight sometimes. He said that it would be a great idea. But, I mentioned that like many people, I really don't know what I want to go to school for. I have random skills, hate math, and am very non-confrontational. So this posed a problem for me.

I decided to get online and see what I could find. I took a look at www.About.com and searched Career Planning. I was given 3 tests to take, one of which I could not get to work. The first one was not really a test but just a list of traits in different categories. I was to choose the category that best described me and in turn would get a list of jobs that best suited those traits. Here's what I got:

I am: CONVENTIONAL (sounds boring)

Here is the list of jobs it gave me:

Abstractor (CSI)Accountant (CSE)Accounting Clerk and Bookkeeper (CSR)Administrative Assistant (ESC)Bank Teller (CSE)Budget Analyst (CER)Building Inspector (CSE)Business Teacher (CSE)Cashier (CSE)Catalog Librarian (CSE)Clerk (CSE)Computer Operator (CSR)Cost Accountant (CES)Court Reporter (CSE)Customs Inspector (CEI)Data processing worker (CRI)Electronic Mail Technician (CSR)File Clerk (CSE)Financial Analyst (CSI)Insurance Adjuster (CSE)Insurance Underwriter (CSE)Internal Auditor (ICR)Key Punch Operator (CSE)Kindergarten Teacher (CSE)Legal Secretary (CSA)Library Assistant (CSE)Medical Records Technician (CSE)Medical Secretary (CES)Safety Inspector (RCS)Service Station Attendant (CER)Tax Consultant (CES)Telephone Operator (CSE)Typist (CES)

I don't know about you, but half of these jobs sound like I would be trapped in a tiny office or dusty closet for the rest of my life.

So I went on to the next test, which was the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type. The stuff I read said something about it having to been given and scored by a professional, but that they had changed it to generalizations, so I guess it was safe to do on my own. Anyways, here is what I scored:

Type: ISTJ - "Dependable, reliable and trustworthy, they like to belong to solid organisations that are reasonable in their ambitions and loyal to their employees. They feel useful when their roles and responsibilities are clearly established and they can monitor their activities and productivity in tangible ways. They tend to be rather modest, traditional and conventional, to like sensible clothing, to be thrifty, careful and wise with both money and possessions.
Once they accept a project, they will see it to the end. They manage their time well and are realistic about how much time and resources will be needed.
They tend to like to stay in one neighborhood, often choosing to live close to where they were themselves raised. They are often involved with volunteer organisations and have a developed sense of citizenship and accountability. When they purchase something, it is after careful consideration; rarely will they buy something without having a known need or use for it. They may keep possessions for a lifetime and treasure those that were given to them.
They tend to have a good memory for specific facts that are necessary in their day-to-day life at work and at home. They accumulate facts and details to orient themselves, relying on repeated experiences that have been proven trustworthy. A fact once experienced may be the product of circumstance and happenstance; it is not in and of itself reliable. When an introverted sensing type hears an idea, they rummage through reams of archived facts to find an experience that provides information for the relevance and realism of an idea. When an introverted sensing type utters, "It's never been done!" they are saying that no information about the relevance or usefulness of the idea is available to them. They tend to shy away from surprises and what is perceived as unnecessary change." - By Danielle Poirier www.RebelEagle.com © copyright Rebel Eagle Productions

And here are the jobs it suggested:

Chief Information Officer
Meteorological
Database administrator
Healthcare administrator
Paralegal
Accountant
Real Estate broker
Construction / building inspector
Police detective
Agricultural scientist
Primary care physician
Biomedical researcher
Office manager
Credit analyst

So by this point, I am not really sure that I want to go back to school. None of the jobs sounds that interesting...well except the meteorological one, but not if I have to get in front of a camera!

Then, as if God was reading my mind, Jude bumped his head on his bed and started screaming. This brought me back down to Earth, and back to the original reason I am not in school. Just the disruption of him screaming while I was trying to concentrate here on the computer, caused my blood-pressure to shoot through the roof. I cant imagine trying to do homework or study, while taking care of the kids. It just wouldn't be fair to them. I think that I will wait until Stephan is done with school, and in the meantime I will continue doing the job that I almost do best. And that is being a Mom.