Hi @cteeniee
I love this post! I haven't actually reflected on what aspirations I had as a kid and how different they are now; it's certainly thought-provoking.
As a kid, I wanted to be either a Border Force officer or a police officer, I think the RBT and Border Force Show on the TV really influenced this. But when it came to high school, when your career advisor would start asking you what jobs you wanted to do, I had no clue. I was interested in doing Psychology at Uni, but I always doubted myself, thought I was not smart enough and too anxiety-ridden to do it. I was also just so caught up in trying to survive high school that I wasn't thinking too much about my future and what I wanted to do. I did end up studying a Bachelor of Arts with specialisations at Uni, but thought I'd go back to what I was interested in as a kid, so I did a Bachelor of Border Management. And now, I am graduating with a Bachelor's degree and three Executive Deans Awards, which I really am proud of. While studying, I also took three other courses in Tafe, which were great and expanded my knowledge and skills.
But now that I've finished my Bachelor's degree, I feel a little bit lost again in what I want to do, especially job-wise; it's a bit overwhelming and daunting trying to figure out my next move. But since becoming a Builder on here and my previous experience being a young carer and providing peer support to friends, I have been more drawn towards taking up Mental Health/LGBTQIA+ Peer Support Work, and I am considering doing a Cert IV in Mental Health Peer Work. I know the Cert IV can take me down a lot of paths career-wise, probably more than what my Bachelor's degree can, but that's okay. Either way, I think I'd like to start a career in the mental health/peer support field, it'd be so rewarding.
Thank you for doing this post! And I hope anyone reading this finds some comfort in what I've shared. We truly need to normalise that it's okay to change our minds, and it's also okay not to know what we want to do.
- Matcha_Toad 🐸🍵💚
