"Political Aspirations" or "Choosing A Major"

[Seil]

So - as has been made painfully clear to me - I have little direction in life. I stay where I am most comfortable. However, this has to change.

The thing is that I'm told how great I am - that I'm funny and smart and I've got a voice and I can do anything I set my mind to. But I've got nothing I want to do. I like to write, I have hopes of being a nurse, getting into teaching, getting into politics... I just have no basis of where to start from. I'm apparently a really smart person living under a rock - I've got very little real world experience.

The whole idea is that I want to help people, to change something for the better, and I think I can do that on a measurable basis as a nurse, but if I go that way I'm going to have to look into "Medical Terminology," "Medical Ethics" and all that jazz. The only thing I know for certain about politics is that I'd have to take a course in "Political Science," brush up on my geography and history... If I go into writing, I need to go into literature and journalism and all that crazy stuff.

The trouble is that because I'm an idiot, I don't know how to start. Even if I get the schooling (and there are probably plenty of people who'd like to school me) I don't know how to break into a desired field. I mean, I could start sending pictures of my junk to my mistress, but it just wouldn't be the same without a wife.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

I had a similar conundrum before I found my direction. Could go on and on about my life story of how I got into I.T. and going to college for network systems security.

There'll always be a tedious drudgery to any career. But basically what it comes down to is when you tear down the self-delusions, mental/emotional roadblocks, and just get down to the brass tacks there is one simple task. Ask yourself a single question: what is it that you truly enjoy doing? and go from there.

[Amake]

Well, you don't need any classes to learn how to write. The only way to do that is read things to see how it's done, and practice. So you could do that while majoring in something else. Politics synergize well with writing. . .

[Overcast]

Like I enjoy talking with people about their problems and leading them toward a suitable solution or giving them perspective and reassurance on things around them. As such I am charmed about psychology, even if I know I will probably never really advance the practice.

If you enjoy the feeling of knowing that you are bringing genuine help to people nursing is also a good path, but it is a job I would suggest you take a short internship in to see if you have the stomach for it because it does get nasty at times.

Which is a great way of figuring out if you actually do want to enter a field, try to find a nearby practitioner(NOT A TEACHER) and perhaps try to talk to them about the field itself.

Also everything you need to know about being a politician in the modern age is right here (http://youtu.be/zQ5cGYBV2TQ). At least in the US, Canada may be different, but I doubt it.

Right now I am not doing something I love, but it is at least something I can stand. And hopefully I can stomach it for a few more years before I can finally get my real life started. So really, think. Just think.

[Ecks]

I need some new Seil Thread Appreciation pics... I'm pretty sure the Laughing Guy is getting old. That said, I always had a problem trying to pick out a major in college, the only thing I really wanted to do was take a foreign language, and maybe get some business management to go with it. Despite my lifelong aspirations to become a game designer, I have absolutely SHIT aptitude for coding, so perhaps getting a major/minor in Japanese and the opposite for business management could get me in the door with the bureaucracy side of things (at least as far as NOA or SCEA are concerned). But now I am slave to RGIS, am getting married next fall (not this coming fall), and am trying to help my fiance's dreams come true. This doesn't bother me so much because at age 21, I STILL have no clue what I really want to do with my life, other than be an all around awesome guy, awesome husband to my awesome wife, perhaps an awesome father to some awesome kids, and maybe become as awesome an inventory counter and supervisor as my awesome boss.

Yes, I am trying for solid awesome.

[CelesJessa]

If you think you might like nursing, there's some in-home care places you can work for without having a degree or volunteering at a hospital, to learn if that kind of thing is what you want. I have a close friend who had a similar conundrum(She really enjoyed writing, and originally went to college for English, but never felt like it was quite right), and she did some in-home care for awhile and discovered it was her passion, so now she's returned to school for nursing. (And there's always a job market for nurses!)

Political science is a hard field to get into, if you don't live in the right places. My brother majored in it and there's not really much opportunity for him to use it, other than it just being a college degree. (Of course that's all just what I've gathered from my brother's experience.)

[Krylo]

Philosophy.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

History is the subject of kings.

[phil_]

what is it that you truly enjoy doing? and go from there.But they don't pay people to sleep, do they? Is that a field I can go into? 'Cause I can pull the long hours there. We're talking pre-labor rights, twenty hour shifts. I don't need breaks.

[Overcast]

You can try to become the director of a sleep studies group, and become so self involved in your work that you must always be a part of the test group as the control.

[Aldurin]

If you want to go into nursing (or anywhere in the medical field), you may want to consider anestezi-watchumacallit or something along that lines for the profit in there.

[TDK]

Anesthesiology.

[CABAL49]

I always considered myself lucky because I knew exactly what I wanted to major in before I went into college. I took an AP class for Government and found that I really enjoyed it. It was when I got to college I found that Political Science is more complicated. It is not hard, but it was a much deeper subject than I imagined. There are things like Public Administration which requires you to have no knowledge of the outside world. This was not my forte. At all. Learning terminology for budgeting was something I could do, but I found it incredibly boring. What I found was that I was very apt at the International Relations aspect of Poli Sci. Understanding how and why different governments were formed allowed me to also study history, another favorite subject of mine.

A warning though. Political Science does give you an undeserving sense of accomplishment. We all gain massive egos and do battle with each other. Be prepared to argue all the time. Even when you think you are done with classes. I saw a guy in my class once. Stopped to say hi. Ended up having a two hour conversation about the restructuring of China's government.

[Toastburner B]

If you think you might like nursing, there's some in-home care places you can work for without having a degree or volunteering at a hospital, to learn if that kind of thing is what you want.

This is solid advice. When I got it into my head to go back to school to study to be a veterinary technician, I volunteered at a shelter for about six months to make sure I didn't mind the work.

You also might want to talk to people close to you to find and get their opinion/advice. It was actually one of my sisters that suggested I look into being a vet tech since I've always have been good with animals. I'm not sure the idea would have occurred to me otherwise.

[Archbio]

History is the subject of kings.

"Sitting Bull says that history is nothing more than disrespect for the dead."

[PyrosNine]

Well, Seil, Seil, Seil, Seil-y my boy, I had the exact same question when I just started college. I was good at writing, I was kinda artsy, but I was also an avid literary hound, I had great knowledge in the fields of history, technology, psychology. I wanted to be a good person, to help people, to find some job that was took all that I had and turned it into something meaningful.

Now, five years later (Damn college credit transfer snafus!) I've got a degree in Creative Writing in hand, and a long list of potential careers...

and I still have no FUCKING clue. :crying:

Try everything, and see what sticks! Humanities is awesome, because when you take any degree you're supposed to take some humanities, but when you get a degree in Humanities you're supposed to take some of EVERYTHING.

I myself have started blogging in a hope it will hone my writing talents while take generic jobs, so I can either A: Get recognized and get a real writing job (that pays me money) and B: use the cumulative writing effort of a years worth of writing in the blog and elsewhere to get published. That's my first step. My second step is to get enough cash to pay for a degree in programming. And my third is entirely disconnected from the previous two: A Delivery guy.

Admittedly, my plan when I was kid and what I still hope for is to somehow get a job like those in anime, where apparently I get paid to wander around the world with friends (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_%28anime%29) help people with random shit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Tama), and somehow wind up fighting demigods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getbackers) at some point. So I did consider joining the Peace Corps...

[Magus]

I am a teacher.

Don't be a teacher.

EDIT: Well, if you are a teacher be a gym teacher or something. They all get paid the same and that is easy as hell. Making kids play dodge ball and read bad textbooks so they can sort of learn about their bodies is what I should be doing. Instead I'm trying to get kids to read good books. You know how hard it is to get kids to read books that don't have pictures about sex in them?!

[Seil]

'S funny, because my wants are as follows:

Practical or Registered Nurse - I deal with the patients more than the doctors, and working with people is what I'm good at. It's not too expensive and a short (college time, here) course. It's also a stepping stone to all sorts of nursing positions.

Teacher - Probably English, or Biology. I'm kind of tentative here, because while I think I'd be a good prof, I've suspicions that I need to act as a low-paid sub for a while before I can break in to a steady gig. Also, the only high school in the town where I live is shutting down and letting go of all of its teachers - which is incredibly stupid - but the fact stands that all the teachers in my area are looking for work.

Politician - Just from the desire to do some good. I've got no idea how to run a campaign or how to get elected, and what positions I'd go for. I think I'd be a good politician, but I've got no head for the work required to get into office, whatever office that may be.

Interior Design/Massage Therapy - These are things I feel I'd look into once I've got a steady gig doing something else. I don't see myself having a job as a Massage Therapist or Interior Decorator anytime soon.

[Magus]

'
Teacher - Probably English, or Biology. I'm kind of tentative here, because while I think I'd be a good prof, I've suspicions that I need to act as a low-paid sub for a while before I can break in to a steady gig. Also, the only high school in the town where I live is shutting down and letting go of all of its teachers - which is incredibly stupid - but the fact stands that all the teachers in my area are looking for work.


Well those two choices seem...pretty divergent? I was either going to be English or History, chose English because there were supposed to be more job openings than in social studies. But anyway, history and literature go hand in hand and I was into both.

I guess biology and lit can be connected...sort of? Huh. Kind of interesting that you are into both, I guess, how'd that happen, do you think?

And yes, you will probably have to sub before you get a contracted position. Sounds like Canada is having financial problems just like the U.S. However you at least don't have to worry about No Child Left Behind, although Canada may have something just as horrible. Hopefully the stigma that is placed upon teachers here in the U.S. doesn't exist in Canada. If it does, get ready to be blamed for everything from the state of the U.S. economy to indoctrinating children into the Church of Satan.

HOWEVER day-to-day subbing is really easy because you teach other people's lesson plans. With full-time teaching comes a crap-ton of responsibility, at least here in the U.S.

And in fact here in the U.S. they will screw you out of money. I just got done teaching a long-term teaching position for a teacher on maternity leave, I had to do lesson plans, grades, discipline, the whole nine yards, but they still paid me as a day-to-day sub, they just signed me up for the same teacher every day for three months. I believe they kept it secret from the union because shit would have hit the fan. I was kind of pissed, too, but it was that or nothing.

Er, yeah. So again, don't teach, or if you do, make it gym.

[Aldurin]

Politician - Just from the desire to do some good.

Pfff-hahahahahah!!

[Seil]

Well those two choices seem...pretty divergent? I was either going to be English or History, chose English because there were supposed to be more job openings than in social studies. But anyway, history and literature go hand in hand and I was into both.

I guess biology and lit can be connected...sort of? Huh. Kind of interesting that you are into both, I guess, how'd that happen, do you think?

Stems into the Nurse thing. I'm interested in the mechanics of the body, I think it's pretty neat. That being said, I know about half as much as high school science teachers care to think, which is why I'm looking toward further schooling.

I don't think we have a "No Child" act, but we do have stupid government. The "feeling" - ie. what the people with the money feel - is that since enrollment is lower than years previous, we ought to close down the school. It's probably more detailed than that, but there's a few "Don't Close KSS" pages around if you really wanna get into it. But subbing seems like a really... well, slow job. I'd love to be hired right outta the gate, but that's not the way things work. My passion is making people happy, dealing with people and young kids.

If I do go for an ECE license (Early Childhood Education) would it be as slow, or could I dive right in to steady work?

[Seil]

Pfff-hahahahahah!!

That's what politicans are (supposed to) be there for: the greater good. The biggest scandal I'd have would be that I got drunk while in the office. (After hours, of course) But politics are supposed to work, godammit, and if I can help them work, then that's a worthy goal.

[Magus]

Early Childhood is not necessarily any better than Primary and Secondary degrees right now. If you really want to dive in right off the bat Special Education is probably what you'd have to go for, as long as you're up for doing tons of paperwork, interviews, IEPs (Individual Education Plans) and IAPs (Individual Accommodation Plans) and so on and so forth.

You could maybe also look into learning a foreign language like Spanish and being an ESL teacher (though technically for some reason you don't HAVE to know Spanish to be an ESL teacher, I can see it making the job nine hundred times easier than having to hire a Spanish speaking person to work with you in the classroom). I dunno if there are any big languages in Canada besides French, or if there is really a need for ESL up there, but if there's a lot of immigration then there would be.

If you want to just want to work with people though you could get a degree in Social Working. The pay will probably always stay at about sub-teacher's pay but you're guaranteed to be helping people out.

EDIT: Oh and the demand for teachers in general is always greater in an inner-city neighborhood here in the states. A rural area like mine has a need for good teachers too but there are simply less positions even if the students are as poor as those in Philadelphia. If I had the ambition to relocate I could get a full-time position in Philadelphia tomorrow as an English teacher, any teacher could. If Canada has a need for teachers in major urban centers then there is a dynamic change in job availability. Just thought I'd mention that. Really if you want to jump right into full-time teaching your ability to relocate where the jobs are is another factor. I just don't have the ambition, I'd rather keep trying to get a prison job nearby to fill in my evenings in combination with my day-to-day substitution and increase my pay a bit.

As I just mentioned, prisons are always looking for somebody to help with their GED programs, you could look into that, as well, when and if you get a teaching degree.

Really though if you have an interest in nursing that seems to be where all the demand is now a days. If you eventually become like a physician's assistant or whatever you can help quite a few people while still making a lot of money, especially if you volunteer your time at local clinics and so on. PAs can prescribe medicine so there is a big demand for them (basically several PAs work in conjunction with a full doctor who just signs off on their decisions).