When I was younger, okay really not that much younger than I am now, only 15 years ago, I had grand aspirations. I mean GRAND in the biggest sense of the word.
Picture if you will...me, living in Dallas in the middle of the dot.com (or dot.bomb if you prefer) era, making a killing in the real estate market off all the retire-at-30-and-move-east-Silicon Valley-internet-start-up-kings, envisioning myself retiring by the age of 35 (because that's what all the dot.commers with successful IPO's were doing), owning my own, paid for home, driving my beautiful car, also paid for and using my time to study things of interest to me and volunteering.
Fast forward fifteen years and my aspirations have changed. I suppose this happens to everyone, but my internal wailing cries out "I never thought it could happen to me". ME! How could this happen to ME? (I know, overly dramatic and everyone says that at my age.)
My current aspirations include I want to have a job/career doing massage with flexible hours while I go to nursing school then hopefully transition to a career that encompasses both talents, own my own home or condo, have my car paid off and live in a location that suites me better than the northeast. I'm even getting the occasional, tiny tingling of "what would life be like if I had a baby?" Do I make this sound easy or what? Ahem.
Returning to reality, I seem to be stuck in a hole of stuck in the northeast, only being able to practice massage in three states, Texas, Nevada and Pennsylvania, none of which happen to be the states I reside. I would like to move to Florida because of the abundance of nursing programs, but the application for my massage license has been held up because of a problem with my school credentials. I applied February 2 and am still waiting for approval. Do I keep waiting and hoping the Florida massage license will come through? Move somewhere far away so it will be guaranteed it will be approved the very next day? (Wouldn't the Universe get a good laugh at that one?) Go, wait tables and go to nursing school there?
I also would love to live on the west coast again. Maybe its just nostalgia, but life, while still had problems, was much less complicated. I enjoyed small pleasures like visiting the library or aquarium. I was able to invite friends over to my home and just hang out. (The SO's sleeping patterns coupled with the fact that he works from the living/dining room doesn't make this possible.) I never, ever thought I could have problems of the likes of what I deal with now. I have lived in Nevada and could easily live there again. I was very near Lake Tahoe and loved it with all the beautiful mountains and amazing clarity of Lake Tahoe's waters. The downside of that one is there are only two nursing programs in the area.
I would love to move back to Seattle, but Washington requires more hours than I acquired for my massage license, so I wouldn't be able to practice massage. I would be in a place where I have a significant amount of friends and the culture deeply resonates with me. I loved the aquarium and Seattle has my all time favorite spiritual center, Center for Spiritual Living Seattle. Just going there makes me feel so empowered and full of life. It also has an abundance of nursing programs. The downside to Seattle is of course the long dark wet winters. Did I mention the dogs hate wet?
I know my aspirations are possible to make reality, I'm just having a hard time deciding how I want to play my cards on this one.
What are some of your aspirations? How have they changed over the years?
1 comments:
So you're not able to simply transfer your massage therapy license from the state you originally licensed in to Washington? My best advice is go with your gut. It won't matter what nursing program your in if you can't stand the area you're living in.
My aspirations have changed a lot over the years, especially over the last 5 years. I want to be an RN, eventually a CNP, be independent, raise kids who can take care of themselves and recognize BS when they see/hear it, and do what makes me content while continuing to push myself.
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