Hapless Career log

So I've been seeing a psychologist, and we've determined that I've had a shaky go at properly starting life, and that I need to figure out what I want to do and how to go about it. I was wondering how you decided what to do in life, and how you coped with taking the plunge as it were
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:09 AM
Well
Balthazaar - Today at 11:09 AM
Sort of trying to ask the successful adults I know to get as much possibly advice and info as possible
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:09 AM
Gimme just ONE moment to put this gun belt back together
And I'll be right with ya
Balthazaar - Today at 11:11 AM
No problem man, no rush
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:16 AM
Me? This is probably a decision best undertaken with Katie for some context, but she'll tell you, I don't hardly plan shit. I do two things: jump, and react. I signed up for the Marine Corps on my 17th birthday and shipped off to boot camp a week after I graduated high school. I went to the recon indoc at infantry school because I saw a flyer up for it in the common room. I separated from my ex, and moved to another country and almost 3000 miles away to the opposite end of the United States to be with a person I met less than a year prior and whom I'd met in person exactly once before we signed a lease and got an apartment. I started work two days after I arrived there because I filled out a job application for shits and giggles while driving across country.
We're about to quit our jobs together, on the same day, and move to the Midwest to start a career neither of us have the barest bit of experience in.
We're also selling our vehicles and cutting our lease.
We will literally be homeless, except for the truck we work and live in.
Katie didn't figure out what she wanted to do until she was 27 years old.
Hell, I moved out of my grandma's house from taking care of my grandfather when I moved to Canada.
About three years ago.
I turn 32 in two weeks.
You there?
Balthazaar - Today at 11:23 AM
Yeah, sorry
I'm also looking into university papers at the same time
Did those decisions freak you out at all?
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:25 AM
Nope.
I mean, I've had times when I could barely make bills, and shit like that.
And I've been threadbare at times.
But it's shit that happens.
Hell, right now? This is the first REALLY solid plan we've ever had.
Balthazaar - Today at 11:26 AM
Right(edited)
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:26 AM
I mean, outside of short term stuff.
So tell me this
What do you want to do?
What is your goal
And now old are you
Balthazaar - Today at 11:27 AM
That's what I'm trying to figure out
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:27 AM
*how
Balthazaar - Today at 11:28 AM
The things I'm considering are studying zoology or biology to try get a job within those fields, hopefully in either research or a wildlife facility like a zoo
Possibly being a vet nurse
Or maybe a career with my photography
And I am 24
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:30 AM
To what end? Do you just like animals, do you like handling them, do you like conducting hard research on them?
Balthazaar - Today at 11:31 AM
I like all of that, yeah
I like handling them, I like learning about them and preserving them
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:32 AM
Then do some investigating. Check out if there's some two year veterinary programs around, to be a registered veterinary technician, and see how hiring and stuff like that works there.
You can even specialize there, in the kind of animals you work with. It's a more involved process than becoming a human nurse.
And by the time you're done, you can more or less take care of humans, too.
Balthazaar - Today at 11:33 AM
hat's true
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:33 AM
You're handling animals, saving lives, and helping rehabilitate.
Balthazaar - Today at 11:33 AM
Part of me is really shying away from the idea of university, because it's such an enormous step, and such a gamble
which is why I'm hesitant to persue biology and research
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:34 AM
And, depending on wages, maybe saving up money for more school to get into furthering your career field and capabilities, or branching out away from the medical side of things.
That's why I suggested the vet tech angle
Since it's a much shorter course, akin to technical school
You're learning skills and information, not theory
Balthazaar - Today at 11:34 AM
eah, I like that
I'm more hands on than academic
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:35 AM
Look into it, dude.
Balthazaar - Today at 11:35 AM
and I have my whole life to change careers
I will
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:35 AM
Figure out some course costs.
And if you could manage the loans.
And what wages are.
Might be beneficial for you
Balthazaar - Today at 11:35 AM
My ex is a vet nurse, she'll be able to help fill me in on a lot of the details
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:35 AM
And you'll have all the animals you can handle
Balthazaar - Today at 11:36 AM
Loan should be fine, government does a program where they loan you the money and then it's just monthly repayment fees once you're making over 50k a year
Also want to try make sure it's something with people too
I tend to pull back into my own space like a shell a bit so a social job would help
But yeah, I really appreciate you listening and offering this advice man. Thank you
HaplessOperator - Today at 11:53 AM
Hang on
I ain't done
Katie and I were talking and she raised a valid point
Which, if you want to wait until she gets home and can talk, we think might be kind of enlightening for you
Balthazaar - Today at 11:55 AM
I'll take all the advice I can get
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:16 PM
She should be home in about half an hour
Then we can rap with you about some deep shit
To help maybe delineate some goals
And clear up the difference between a goal, a career, and a passion.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:17 PM
Okay
Yeah, it's a bit of a mess with all that
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:17 PM
Some of this will require some background, but I think it might be helpful for you.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:18 PM
I'd say my goals are different to my career in a way
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:18 PM
Of course.
Take ours for example.
Our goal, like where we want to be in life, is with each other, on a plot of land in Wyoming or Montana, living in a house we built, shooting guns and raising animals and tending a little hobby farm.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:19 PM
That sounds nice
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:19 PM
Each other, and the guns? That's our passion.
The trucking we're about to embark on?
Balthazaar - Today at 12:19 PM
See that's where I'm worried about the photography and the animals
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:20 PM
We're gonna do that because in five to eight years, by the time I'm 40najd she's about 35
Balthazaar - Today at 12:20 PM
They're passions, do I want them to be a career
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:20 PM
We're gonna be set up with where we want to be in life.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:20 PM
Right
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:20 PM
Neither of us particularly care about trucking per se.
But it's a job that DOES let us be happy and whole people while we're working toward our goal
And since we work together, it's that much better. We don't give a shit about the job itself, as it were, but it's going to be reasonably fun and lets us be happy while we're pursuing what we really want.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:21 PM
Yeah, I feel that
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:22 PM
Cuz neither of us wants to work security til we're 40, even if it paid enough money to fund our goal.
Because we'd hate life.
And the goal is no good if you're killing your soul to get there. L
There is of course a balance.
But it's something that you absolutely have to suss out and make the call on.
Where do you want to be in 30 years? Do you want a woman, kids, do you want a house? Where? City? Rural?
Balthazaar - Today at 12:23 PM
I feel like maybe I should do something I can enjoy or feel is a worthwhile career to chase my goal (To have my own home, a partner, maybe a kid some day and to be able to live happily) and perhaps keep my passions of photography and animals seperate from that
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:24 PM
You don't need a degree to go rad places and take rad-ass pictures like you do
All you need is the money to get to those places and a love for what you're doing
Balthazaar - Today at 12:24 PM
Yeah
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:24 PM
Now the animals?
That's a passion you can turn into a lucrative career
You care about animals with the mind of a conservationist. Yeah?
Balthazaar - Today at 12:25 PM
Yeah
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:25 PM
An animal's life is something worth saving and preserving the same as any human's.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:25 PM
Conservation, study and care
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:26 PM
Now see, to do that, you DO need school, if you want a viable way to make a difference
Balthazaar - Today at 12:26 PM
xactly
My thinking there is to either do the degree and try to get a job at the local wildlife park, then from there I'll be able to help them with breeding programs, lending my hand to an existing cause, and perhaps from there even go into one of the bigger zoos like melbourne, werribee, ore even Taronga
Or to get the degree and channel into a research role
Problems with both are that the local park is never hiring, and I'd probably need to start through volunteer work
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:31 PM
Well, consider medical work. And think for a second about where research would bring you, what it is, how it could get you to your goal.
Cuz your goal isn't to write a thesis on lemurs.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:31 PM
No, but it pays well
Vet nurse is about 37,000 a year
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:31 PM
Grants pay for research, not your salary.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:31 PM
Right
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:31 PM
Ah, you meant the medical bit
Balthazaar - Today at 12:31 PM
I think you're right
though I think I'd also enjoy writing a thesis on animals
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:32 PM
There are plenty of starving doctoral candidates out there.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:32 PM
Probably not lemurs, they're pretty well documented by this point
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:32 PM
Heh
Balthazaar - Today at 12:32 PM
But yeah, maybe when I'm old and established
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:33 PM
I think the medical route might be good. Like you said, it pays well, it'd let you save lives most days, you're working with something you love, getting to explore that passion that's important to you, and would allow you to be self sufficient
Self sufficiency means you can work toward your goal
Balthazaar - Today at 12:34 PM
And it'd do 2 things that my last job didn't
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:34 PM
It means you're stable. It means you're reliable, that you can snag a woman and be a visible rock.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:34 PM
3 things
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:34 PM
It lets you save money
For that additional schooling, to being you closer to more of what you love and to set you up for a better paying job later on
Balthazaar - Today at 12:35 PM
It won't annihilate my spine, it won't allow my boss to explode at me since there will be patients and customers nearby, and it'll give me a sense that I'm doing something worthwhile
And it'll look good on a resume for any other animal related work too
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:36 PM
It's not like you can't move up in a medical practice either, especially a larger animal hospital, or at a zoo or something. Work the medical route, get some schooling, and land a masters or doctorate sometime in the next decade.
I think that might be something worthwhile for you.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:36 PM
Exactly
And its not like I can't change careers if it doesn't go well or if I want to move on
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:37 PM
But do your research, talk to that ex, and if you see a window for what you want
If that target pops up
Do what I do
And pull the fucking trigger
Balthazaar - Today at 12:37 PM
Jump before I think
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:37 PM
Because it won't hang around waiting for you
Balthazaar - Today at 12:37 PM
yeah
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:37 PM
You can over think yourself to inaction
Paralysis by indecision
And when that happens, you don't reap the rewards of succeeding on a venture
You don't even get to learn something from making a mistake
Because you sat around and didn't do shit
It's alright to just jump and then react to the shit flying past you sometimes
Especially if you're doing something you like along the way
I'm not saying go out and jump off a bridge, or do some ill advised shit, or not consider what you're doing at all
But don't beat yourself do death inside your own head on shit like that, or you'll never end up doing anything with any of it
Balthazaar - Today at 12:41 PM
Yeah, that's the trap I've been in since the nursery(edited)
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:45 PM
But yeah, dude
Look into fixing animals. It pays well, it's an in into the rest of the industry, would make you stable and self sufficient, and has you doing something you care about, all in pursuit of something you really want in the end.
As a bonus, women love guys that are stable, self sufficient, and enjoying life.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:47 PM
And it's an in to meet women with similar interests
I think this is very much the right move for me
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:49 PM
Certainly not a bad one. And a damn sight better than working at a nursery or something like that, waiting for a change to come.
Change doesn't just come.
You gotta reach out and take it.
Balthazaar - Today at 12:49 PM
eah
Yeah
the whole time there I was srangling with the choice of just settling there and trying to get full time work or to go elsewhere
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:50 PM
Do me a favor
Balthazaar - Today at 12:50 PM
Was a weight lifted when I left, and it's a bit of a weight lifted now to have a plan now
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:50 PM
I told Katie I was talking to you about this
And she had some stuff too
If you want to, and if you're comfortable with it
Balthazaar - Today at 12:51 PM
Yeah man, I think it's a good idea to talk to her about it too
she's clearly clever and I trust her judgement
HaplessOperator - Today at 12:51 PM
Copy paste this whole shit
And fire it her way
She'll build on it
Balthazaar - Today at 12:52 PM
Yeah, would be much easier than typing it all out again