I turn 31 this month and I have no clue what I’m doing with my life

How has 3 decades of my life gone by? I can still smell the piles of leaves I jumped in as a child. I remember the taste of my mom’s spaghetti pie that she used to make on a weekly basis. My parents are now double my age.

I thought my life would look a lot different when I was younger looking towards my future. I remember my plan to be married, two kids, own a house by the time I was 25. The reality was at 25 I was still working two part time jobs, getting eviction notices, eating out too much or just eating junk food, living just for the next day, and really struggling with trying to find my purpose and fulfillment.

Fast forward five years and I’ve not only found my purpose, but completely changed the trajectory of my life. In 2019 I had just turned 25 and was finishing up my Bachelors degree in Graphic Design. I thought I wanted to be an art teacher. So, I started working in the school district as an assistant in special education. I enrolled in a graduate program for a Masters in the Art of Teaching - Art Education. I never intended to stay in special education. Within that 5 months of working in the schools from September 2019 to March 2020, I absolutely fell in love with special education. Covid hit. Schools shut down. We were forced to figure out how to provide quality education in a virtual environment, which proved near impossible with neurotypical students, nevermind trying to teach special education in that setting. But I had fallen in love and found a sense of purpose, so I applied and accepted a position teaching special education Resource/Inclusion in the fall.

I taught in that setting for 2 years and was absolutely in love with my school, my administration, my team. What I was not in love with was the systems in place at the district level. They were not built to support special education teachers, and by proxy were not built to support special education students. In the state of Texas, you have to have a Master’s degree in Educational Administration in order to even be considered for a leadership position at a campus or district level. So what stupid thing did I do when I graduated with my Masters in Art Education? Enrolled in a graduate program for a Masters in Educational Administration. I was determined. I was passionate. I was ready to learn about leadership and systems and be able to improve my district’s systems in order to improve opportunities for all special education students.

Within the next two years, I had changed teaching assignments to work in the Functional Academics Classroom, which is a self-contained special education service in Texas that services moderate-severe special needs children (Autism, Downs Syndrome, Intellectual Disability, CP, etc.). I had an amazing group of students and amazing group of educational assistants to support them. I spent summers working for our district’s Extended School Year program, which is an IEP support that is provided for students who typically see a regression in critical skills during breaks from school - in other words they need to stay in a school routine in order to keep their skills they have learned during that school year. It was some of the toughest and sweetest special education moments of my career.

In 2023 I decided to transfer schools due to some changes in administration and student caseload at my current campus. The 2023 school year ended for me on October 13th (which I’ll go into more in a different blog). I finished my Master’s Degree later that month.

I immediately got a job working as a bartender at a local taphouse, enjoying the flexible schedule, being able to “clock out” and the immediate decrease in emotional and physical stress. I hired a life coach and started applying for positions in the corporate world - out of education altogether.

Seriously? Two fucking Master’s degrees in education and here I was not even 5 whole years into my teaching career ready to quit with one day notice and looking for opportunities in other fields. Believe me… I’ve had plenty of conversations with my younger self about the impulsive and expensive decisions that I’ve made.

I had still not been able to secure a full time position by February, so started looking at my local school districts for substitute opportunities. As much as I had grown a distaste for the districts’ systems and the administration that I had experienced, I missed working with kids. I started substituting at a local DAEP campus. I enjoyed the people I was working with and again saw many opportunities for system improvements. I started feeling inspired again. I applied for and accepted a position as an ARD Facilitator in that district. I worked at the high school level, which turned out to be less about special education and more about paperwork and disciplinary meetings.

Over the summer, I reignited my search for a corporate position. I was applying for anything any everything. At this time, I had still not secured even an interview for a corporate role. Two Master’s degrees and 5 years of teaching experience and on paper I was “not qualified” for many corporate positions.

I found my current position in the beginning of June and applied. I worked with HR for almost a month before even securing my interview, but then was hired on the next day. I worked as a support specialist for 5 months - think support ticket systems, reporting, administrative tasks like building slideshows, working on training material, etc. In January I was promoted to an operations role where I am now responsible for way more and heavily involved in the success of the franchise owners.

And here we are. When I started college in 2012, I wanted to be an architect. I dropped out of college to study graphic design. I’m passionate about so many things, I think it makes it difficult to try and settle on one thing. I know some people that knew exactly what they wanted to do since middle school - and they are doing it now! I am not that person. I have no clue what I’m doing and not sure how long I’ll enjoy my work. It’s doing the job right now - it fills the bucket, my salary is higher than it ever could have been as a teacher, and the 9-5 schedule definitely has its perks.

ALL this to say - I have no clue what I’m doing with my life. You don’t have to. I’m a different person every day and I’m grateful to live a life where that is acceptable and I’m able to make empowered decisions about what I want to do, where I want to spend my time, and how I want to make a living for myself.

Who actually uses their degrees besides doctors, anyway?

cheers

rach