Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
When I was in middle school and high school all I wanted to be was an airline stewardess. Yes, that’s what they were called.
The job requirements were to be 5’5” tall, slim, at least 19, and unmarried. I met all the requirements but then I married at 19. So no airline stewardess job for me.
I went to college and majored in journalism. I worked in the corporate communications department of a large insurance company. Then I moved to South Carolina.
I was having difficulty finding a decent job when a friend asked me if I wanted a job as a counselor in a prison. That was the shifting of gears.
In my last years of employment, I owned a treatment center working with convicted felons. I loved it. I had a passion for it. It was a 200-degree shift from what I had been doing but it brought me great joy.
At the time I thought I was nuts. My husband didn’t like the idea of my working in a prison. But who would have thought that changing gears in midlife would bring so much more fulfillment? It did. I never regretted that path I started on in my 40s.
It taught me so much. Not only about overcoming fears and obstacles but also about people. About caring. About how to treat people with respect and dignity no matter who they are or what they did.
When I reflect on switching gears mid-life, it’s with fondness and a sense of a life well lived.
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