I know the saying of online friends are not real friends, however, I have forged many meaningful and lasting friendship with some of you here. One of those is Patty from Dreampack, a wonderful website that dedicates to connect beautiful souls and to guide those who are lost and let them know they always have a choice.
Below is one of her crafted article that talks about one of her experiences. Please go to her website for more inspiring articles, let her inspire you like her words and comments do for me every single day.
As a child, I wanted to be a ballerina or psychologist for children. When the moment came to decide to pursue a career of a professional ballerina, my parents divorced and as a ten-year young girl, it didn’t feel right to leave home and move to another part of the country. When one door closes, another one opens and psychology seemed a possibility again. However, although I loved and love to learn, studying wasn’t easy for me and as a teenager, my ideas which career to pursuit shifted constantly.
What I knew for sure, it had to do something with being around people. Traveling the world appealed too, so after high school, I went to get my diploma in Tourism.
Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of jobs available at the time and after working as a hostess at several exhibitions, shops and even worked at a river-boat in France for a few weeks, I got a job at a currency exchange office. Getting conflicted personally by the high exchange rates I had to calculate, I decided to quit within the year and go to an employment agency. That led to a steady job with a small company, who repaired refrigerators, ovens, washing machines, etc.
Although I was good at my job, scheduling the routes for the mechanics was my favourite part and the work-sphere was very pleasant, it wasn’t about working with people a lot. So, in my early twenties, I went back to school and became a Social-Pedagogic Worker. During that study, I gained a lot of knowledge about myself and working with children at the age between 2 and 17 at various schools, I just loved. Unfortunately, paying jobs weren’t available again and a girl has to eat, right?
Back to the employment agency and I told them, the job didn’t necessarily have to fit my schooling. I knew how to type and was able to work with a computer and various software. I started as the one at the office to shredder paper and doing the easy administration jobs and worked my way up to management assistant at a high level. After about 7 years working for different companies (at the time it was exceptional, but I had an ongoing contract with the agency) I wanted to ‘settle’ in my career. The idea of having my own desk, getting to bond with colleagues (instead of having to say goodbye every 6 months/12 months), appealed to me more and more. I applied at the multinational I worked at then and was very excited to get the job.
Within that job, I broadened my knowledge and besides being the departmental secretary and assistant to the manager, I also worked at clinical study projects. Meanwhile, I was working all together almost ten years in the administration sector, without a specific diploma in that area. Life was good, happily married, two cats and small, but a house of our own. You probably already guessed it, my health got in the way. During my last official holiday, I got 11 migraine attacks in 9 days and to cut a long story short; nothing was found to be medically an issue, it wasn’t work related, but due to personal stuff going on in my life. My husband has a well-paid job himself, told me to take a sabbatical for a year.
I quitted my job and the first few months, I relaxed and watched television a lot. We thought it was also a suitable moment to add a dog to our family and by retrieving knowledge about dogs and their needs, witnessing the awful practices around dogs in the world, I re-schooled myself into a natural animal therapist.
I had a practice, created a website Dreampack for dogs and discovered how much I liked to write.
A few years later my husband got a huge opportunity work related, which means we had to emigrate. Only three hours away from my home-country, however, I decided to give up the practice and focus on writing. Over the last few years I realized: As well as most animals, we feel better as part of a committed family; no matter the family relation, or how big your family is. Healthy food and drinks are just as important to our health. A roof over our head, enough exercise, structure, clear guidelines…I changed my website, refreshed my knowledge in psychology, studied Nutrition and Existential Well-Being Counseling (there are many fantastic online studies you can do for free), remembered a childhood dream to be a ‘listening ear’ and increased my efforts to connect with Beautiful Souls around the world. That’s how Kally and I met 😊
Kally regularly reminds you, dear readers, how important it is to find out what you’re passionate about. To find a job, which complements your passion and talents. Or, to make sure you implement those in your current job.
When needed, I could jump right back in, because I kept (and keep!) developing myself. Fortunately, I am at a very luxury phase in my life, I no longer have to work for money thanks to my hard-working husband, but what I learned during my paid jobs and would like to share with you:
Go with the flow, create opportunities for yourself and dare to trust and follow your heart.
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