A late start...

I glance at the clock and it's late. I'm usually already asleep at this hour. So, this intro will be brief. Well, sorta...

I was a ridiculously big-hearted child who loved movies with animals and soft fuzzy feelings and believed only good things about other people. I did not have a lot of direction and did well in school. I knew I was going to college. I was good at English/Literature. I told my mom and her best friend I might be a veterinarian when I grew up.

They both promptly decided that was a bad idea. "You're too soft-hearted. You won't be able to do that.You have to go to school for a very long time." They probably don't even remember the conversation, but I do. These two women were probably two of the most influential people in my life. If they said it couldn't be done, I believed them.

Lesson #1: Be careful when you speak because your words have unending influence.

So, I stayed on track to be an English major. In my mind, I was going to be young and successful working in the public relations division of a large corporation, going to cocktail hour, flying around the country for business meetings and living single, beautiful and rich in the big city.

The way things went, I finished my 4 years of undergraduate life and was a tour guide for my university. In order to continue with my tour guide vision (and then the plan had changed to run the visitor's center in my adulthood), I needed to be the graduate assistant to manage the group. In order to do that, I had to be getting my masters. The most applicable major was to get my master's degree in counseling, with my focus in Student Affairs. That would land me exactly where I needed to be so that I could continue with my vision.

In the process of getting your master's degree in counseling, you take a course in testing and assessments. The purpose of this course is to know when a test is indicated, what it is like to take the test, and how to interpret the results. So, the best test subject in a counseling degree is yourself. In the process, you get to learn some interesting things about your favorite person! In that semester, I found that I was very analytical, had a very low likelihood of developing an addiction, had a few areas of weaknesses and strengths, and that I should be in a pulic service job, a veterinarian, or something else....wait, what?

Lesson #2: If you can still be influenced by others, sometimes you miss your own voice.

So, I did three out of four semesters to get my counseling degree. I was in that third semester when I started to reassess things. Was I really going to rearrange my entire plan, life, education and well-developed job track to try to be a veterinarian? Did I realize I had a degree in ENGLISH?!

The resounding answer is yes. The final turning point was one day when I was with my then-boyfriend at his home an riding in the truck with him and his dad. His dad was talking about our futures in a vague, dad-like way (i.e. somebody needs to get a job and pay for things and be responsible). I mentioned that maybe I should go to veterinary school. Instead of hearing a replay of my high school experience, he simply said, "Why not?".

Lesson #3: If you don't have a good answer, there might not be one.

So, I did it. I went back undergraduate for another three years. I was 28 when I graduated with my second degree, this time a Bachelor of Science. I applied to veterinary school and was unbelievably accepted. I went all 4 years without turning back, no regrets.

I graduated at 32. I got my first job, and after a string of jobs I've landed in one I like. I don't know where it goes from here. But after my late start, I do know this:

Lesson #4: It's never too late to be what you might have been. ~ George Eliot