For Writer's Workshop this week, one of the prompts is “If you could do it over again…”
This is a loaded question really. There are a lot of little things and a few big things I wish I had done differently. However, in the place I am in my life at this very moment what I most likely would do over again is to choose a career where international travel is a job requirement. I’m not sure what area I’d choose to go into, but it would most likely be helping others (teaching, international relations) rather than a business type career. It would be a career in which I spent time in one location really learning about the culture, maybe picking up the language, and living the life of the people there before moving on and doing it again in another location.
Since traveling is so prohibitively expensive, I am not able to do it as often as I’d like to. Fortunately, as a teacher, I have time to travel but the time I am able to go is when it’s most expensive. I’ve been very lucky to go to the places I have, but wish I had the time and money to have spent more time there. To have a career where the travel was built in would be wonderful.
However, in the scheme of it all, those small and big things I wish I had done differently aren’t really regrets. Instead I’ve learned from those things. My life is pretty good and those things that didn’t work out so well have shaped me into the person I am today…the good and the bad.
That is really clever! I would never have thought of that! But definitely something to think about next time I'm looking for a job!
ReplyDeleteThat was a smart one!!! I had worked as a teacher and I really enjoyed being with kids and travelling with them all around for different projects and study work.....
ReplyDeleteMy cousin has a job like that; I've been envious of him for a while now!
ReplyDeleteI used to travel a lot for my job. I always wanted them to send me somewhere exotic like Bali, but I usually got sent to various places in the deep south. Not necessarily bad, but sometimes it seemed like they were speaking a different language entirely.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the truth. We are a compilation of everything we have gone through. TO change one thing would change everything.
ReplyDeleteCan you take a year leave and go teach in another country?
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky that we don't have to work 12 months a year...that's for sure. It'd probably kill us if we did!
ReplyDeleteWow - what a great post!
ReplyDeleteIf I had to do EVERYTHING over again there are only TWO things I would do different... 1) avoid credit cards completely (all they bring is MISERY and DOOM into one's life..) and 2) find a job that feeds my SOUL as much as it does my pocketbook (what that might be, I do not know....
I have two friends who have made careers out of travel. One worked her way up to cruise director for a major cruise line, and now supplies on-board stores with merchandise. Another is an adventure travel agent. They seem to have such exciting lives, always on the go, always posting on Facebook from exotic lands. I'm like you, I don't exactly regret it, but I sometimes wish I'd put a little more thought into "lifestyle" when considering career paths.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I have another friend who got her nursing degree specifically because, "They need nurses everywhere," and has travelled the world caring for the sick. Not bad.
Yes, sometimes I wished I'd traveled more before I had kids. But on the whole, like you, I'm happy with my life.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of things, you have done such an amazing job of making sure you go places and do things!
ReplyDeleteI think you have a great life. I'll admit, sometimes I'm a little jealous.
I am glad you are able to travel often. I wish it wasn't so expensive.
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