Crossroads

At times I feel as if life would be a lot easier if it were just a straight road with no deviations, but after thinking about it, I’d much rather experience the dilemmas we encounter in our everyday lives. It’s not a bad thing to be confronted by forks in the road, especially when the alternatives are not really all that bad. It’s a good thing to have choices.

Of course, here I’m referring to the new fork in my own road of life. The AARP lifestyle is not going to be indefinitely sustainable. And to make life a little more sustainable, I’m facing different choices on which line of gainful employment should I choose in the near future.

The issue I’m finding is that with the current state of the US economy, just about every professional field that I would qualify for, sucks. So I’m at liberty of choosing on which job market I want to suck at. The good thing is that if we can make it during times as these, we’ll be flying high once things start to improve. And improve they will. It’s almost the only way to go from here.

One possible road for me would be to go back to the old reliable profession where I actually have some real experience and a resume to back me up. And I’ve seen a handful of pharma-type jobs in the area and also there are several medical research/genetics type jobs at the Univ. of Miami which wouldn’t be too far a daily commute. On the plus side, I may actually have a chance of landing at least an interview. On the other hand, doing the same thing I did for 25 plus years, means no significant change will come out of this new exciting life stage.

Another road could be to seriously pursue the financial planning/advising that I have been preparing myself for years to do. I probably could find some sort of entry position in the industry but given that financial institutions are going through their worst period in years, opportunities maybe few and far between. This would be a real change in direction, but one for which I feel there is a great need. And something where I could make a real difference in people’s lives which I want to make sure is also part of my next profession. God knows, many want to live the AARP-lifestyle but have no clue whether they’ll be able to get there even 20 years after they’d qualify for the coveted membership.

Yet another possibility would be to find more online classes like the ones I’ve been teaching in GCFLearnFree.org for almost 8 years. These activities give me a lot of the flexibility I yearn and give me a small dose of the human interactions most of us want to have in a job. However these types of positions don’t seem to come around too often and the remuneration from them barely make a dent on the sustainability issue.

Pursuing any of these avenues, or even something else that may show up unexpectedly will definitely change the AARP lifestyle that I’ve become accustomed to, but is something that is bound to happen. And after taking and enjoying a long break, I want to make sure I still have what it takes to earn a living, before that choice is taken away from me for good.

As I look for opportunities which hopefully will lead me to a future left or a right turn on my road, I hope that what I find is something that makes a positive impact on those around me and that I will feel proud of having written on my tombstone.