Back in high school I was expected to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. After high school one had to make an oriented decision.
How did it work out for you? Are you where you want to be? Are you where you thought you’d be?
How’s your job? Can you see yourself doing it until you retire? I ended up working jobs I never thought I would or could do. 3 times and counting.(I hope) I think I did OK so far except I’m always broke. That’s the down side.
bobepine
I just posted this, but it’s appropriate here as well:
Hits pretty close to home for most people, I think. How’s that Bob Dylan line go -
“12 years of schoolin’ and they put you on the day shift”
It’s pretty cruel the unrealistic aspirations they raise kids with - “Someday you’re going to be president” - when 99% of the people in this world aren’t going to be rock stars or astronauts, but petty bureaucrats, laborer grunts, and office drones. You either get used to living your life as another nameless, faceless cog in the machine or you don’t.
[quote=“mod lang”]I just posted this, but it’s appropriate here as well:
[/quote]I read the post. That’s what made me think of this thread. Seriously.
Anyways, what’s wrong with teaching Hokey Pokey to a Taiwanese kid?
bobepine
[quote=“bobepine”]
Anyways, what’s wrong with teaching Hokey Pokey to a Taiwanese kid?
bobepine[/quote]
Yeah, that kid could grow up to be president, an astronaut, or a rock star.
[quote=“puiwaihin”][quote=“bobepine”]
Anyways, what’s wrong with teaching Hokey Pokey to a Taiwanese kid?
bobepine[/quote]
Yeah, that kid could grow up to be president, an astronaut, or a rock star.[/quote]
or a marine biologist feeding herring to sarcastic dolphin. My job has me traveling in Asia, Europe and America. I make a good wage. My family, high school, and college friends are a bit envious. I hate it. Hmmm, that self-improvement thread is starting to look better. 
Chou
Many girls from my generation, and background weren’t really encouraged to do anything after high school, other than go to college to obtain their MRS. degrees. I hope things have changed for little girls today. Rather than lip service to obtaining an education and then putting it to use, I hope they are encouraged to do what they truly want to pursue whether that be a full-time home-maker or an aeronautical engineer/astronaut.
I had no idea about anything after high school. That was a truly hellacious transition for me personally. Still, I don’t think I have the right job - if your job is supposed to make you feel like you are a somebody - feel more like a “cog” or the marine biologist in the cartoon. At least I make an above average salary . . . that’s some consolation, I suppose.
Bodo
Bodo, I hear you.
I’m at the stage where I don’t think I can last much longer in my present job. However, it’s not so much the job I hate, but the way I am managed.
I hate it when they make me do everything twice too! :fume:
[quote=“chodofu”]
or a marine biologist feeding herring to sarcastic dolphin. My job has me traveling in Asia, Europe and America. I make a good wage. My family, high school, and college friends are a bit envious. I hate it. Hmmm, that self-improvement thread is starting to look better.
Chou[/quote]
I learned about Mrs.Bane’s first pregnancy when I was in Jerusalem and her second when I was in Paris. Didn’t want to spend my life missing life’s important events so I gave that up that kind of life.
I can’t think of anyone I loathe and despise sufficiently to wish my job on.
Except, I guess, my co-workers.
And Mordeth.
I kind of knew what I wanted to do when I was a little kid… make stuff. I have pictures of when I was like 7 years old with lego spaceships as long as I was tall. I always dropped them though which told me I’d never be a great sportsperson.
I guess Engineering wasn’t really what I thought it was going to be but perhaps I can still pick up the skills needed to be an inventor (Manufacturing, Patent Law etc). Otherwise if I had to do it again, I’d do Industrial Design.
I’ve never really planned anything career wise. High School. Army. University & then a string of meaningless jobs in all kinds of venues, from offices, to construction etc., to some loney bug-infested provincial park.
I enjoy teaching kids, but irishstu is right: it’s the management issue. And in fact as I get older I resent even being managed at all. 
My two kids manage most of me & my time!
Time to break out into self-managment. Got to Get back to Where Ah once Belonged… :braveheart:
Another two years at present gig should suffice. The Little GingerMan That Could… 
“IthinkIcan, IthinkIcan…” 
[quote=“Durins Bane”]
I learned about Mrs.Bane’s first pregnancy when I was in Jerusalem and her second when I was in Paris. Didn’t want to spend my life missing life’s important events so I gave that up that kind of life.[/quote]
Well I certainly hope you were in town for the conception 
.
When I was young, I wanted to do what others thought I should do–become a lawyer, then go into politics. What a laugh–I have absolutely no talent for political analysis, don’t know from one minute to the next whether I’m a Republican or a Democrat.
It took me 35 years to figure out that what I really love to do. I’m doing it now.
I graduated from university with a French (linguistics) degree. Went to Vancouver (from the east coast) and lived with my gandfather, cousin and with friends for a less than a year and a half and found a customer service job. Then went to Montreal and area and did the same thing for 3 years. After that, I went back home and worked the same type of job for 6 months and finally got fired. Then went to IT school for 9 months. Cost a bundle. Worked 2 jobs (contract). Total of 19 months. The last job paid well and I collected EI for 40 weeks (60% of my salary). Lived at a friend’s big house in the country (250 bucks a month), went fishing, played gold, partied and did no job hunting whatsoever until I went to my sister’s in Montreal to look for a computer job and there were no takers (too many candidates and not enough experience). Went back home to my friends and not soon after went to Taiwan because I had a friend and his girlfriend that were working there and they set me up with an apartment.
Now I’m in Korea.
The only thing I regret is burning out the engine in my Toyota when I was on EI. I travelled back and forth from my town and Montreal (8 hr trip) too many times and kept meaning to change the oil and all of a sudden (clunk clunk clunk, clunk clunk clunk). I sold the car cheap and that paid for my flight to Taiwan and then some (1993 Toyota with 130,000 clicks on it).
Anyway, never thought too far ahead about the future.
Geographically, yes… at least I am on the right side of the planet.
I mostly like my work and the folks I work with. Yeah, I can do this until I retire.
Well, wait… I guess that depends on what you mean by “retire”?
When I was four years old and in preschool, I told everyone I was going to be a teacher. I was pretty well known for being a stubborn kid. Guess it’s paid off well.
I’m a mining engineer and I never thought I would be teaching little kids the ABC"s.
Bring it on!
Life is full of suprises.
Just bring it on!!! 
[quote=“canucktyuktuk”]I’m a mining engineer and I never thought I would be teaching little kids the ABC"s.
Bring it on!
Life is full of suprises.
Just bring it on!!! [/quote]I wanted to be a veterinarian as a kid but I couldn’t do math. Math is not good for me, it can kill me. So I ended up hitchhiking across Canada to go ride the big ski hills and to learn English. I got some of the best powder rides one can dream of and I’m now legally sponsored to teach kids basic English. I ended up running two businesses and operating my own until I came to Taiwan. All things I didn’t see coming back in high school. Engineers, lawyers, school owners, teachers have posted so far.(Thank you) I like your attitude Mr. canuck.
I’ve got enough to think about in my life already without worrying too much about what teaching kids Hokey Pokey really means to me but having thought about it, I think it’s all good.
bobepine
I did have the perfect job for me. It was working in the cataloging department of the university library. Most of it was sitting in front of the computer correcting entries in the online catalog. Sometimes I would get to go and remark books from the old Dewey Decimal system to the new Modern Library code. It was just above minimum wage, but I rarely had to talk to people and I love books.