Growing up and making mistakes

I went through many possible career choices while I was growing up; maybe I wanted to be a teacher, an architect, a brain surgeon? Then I got to university and discovered psychology, and thought I’d discovered my passion. Now I’m getting more and more into nutrition and yoga, and am contemplating whether I should pursue a graduate degree in nutrition and teach yoga, or continue on the path I’m already on and pursue clinical psychology training. So many questions! Hence the reason I’ve decided to take a year off after my undergrad to think all these things through!

Since I was 4, I wanted to be a doctor. Wanted. But after my 2+6+6=14 years of education, I’m not sure I want to do it anymore. I have to face the truth that I HATE studying and I’m not exactly an academic- oriented person. After 14 years of ‘knowing’ what I wanted to be when I grow up, right before the year I need to choose my career path, suddenly not knowing the direction of my life… feels so… wrong! Maybe I should ‘not be afraid to make a mistake’, and follow my real dreams, like you did. I guess the only thing to know that something is a mistake is to make the mistake. 🙂

You’ve given me such a boost of confidence lately with ideas about the future. People ask me a lot what I’m going to do next year after school, and I’m fine right now saying I’m not sure because I’m pushing myself in the direction of my passions now instead of what I think I “should” do to fit into a mold of society. One of my favorite quotes is, “Somewhere along the line we seemed to have confused comfort with happiness.”- Dean Karnazeas. I love that– it reminds me to push myself out of my comfort zone and take risks because that can ultimately lead to a fulfilled and happy life!

When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher – ever since I was about 5 that’s what I’d say. I did my degree in education studies – still on track – but then in my second year of university I had my daughter. I still completed my 3 years at uni to get my degree, but career plans were put on hold.

I’ve since had my son as well – daughter is 5 and he is 1.5. Now when people ask me what I want to be, I just don’t know. I love being a Mum and helping my children grow, but once they’re both at school? Lots of my friends have become teachers whilst I’ve been having children, and it’s kind of put me off the profession! I still believe the good sides of the job, but there are so many things my friends complain about, plus there are hardly any teaching jobs near where I live.

So this very long ramble is to say that I used to be certain about what I wanted to be, but now, except for being a mum, I have no idea! Toby still has 1.5 years until he starts part-time pre-school, and 3 years til full-time school, so hopefully I still have a while to figure something out!

I’m so happy you found your passions in food and photography, I love reading your blog and getting lots of yummy ideas! 😀

Katie, your openness, honesty and awesome recipes are so inspiring! I’m even working on creating a college vegan blog of my own. 🙂 Thanks so much for leading the way!

Don’t you worry Katie–I’m 31 and still figuring it out. And you know what? That’s ok!

When I was a little girl, I used to say that I wanted to be a hair stylist so I could get my money right away. 😉 That, or Connie Chung. Yes, I wanted to be Connie Chung. Not a news anchor, but the actual person. Oh dear . . .

I am still figuring out who I want to be when I grow up!

My first degree was in Environmental Sciences and now I am planning to go back for a Master’s in Counselling Psychology because I have realized that my passion is working with people!

This is lovely. Congrats on your Big Decision, by the way. I’m happy for you. Regardless of what happens you’re living life according to how you want it and with courage, which is really what life SHOULD be about.

One thing I’ve noted in general is that people tend to not appreciate the lovely people they ARE and want to define themselves by a career or other status marker. So I love that you didn’t fall into that trap and used your love of food and blogging to propel you forward!

I’m 32 and my thoughts about life/career/direction are ever-changing. Currently, my main focus is to keep my 5-year-old daughter healthy. She has epilepsy and has been seizure free for over a year and a half now, and we’re trying to get to the point (very slowly) of having her off of seizure medications. We’re pursuing an integrated health approach, avoiding dietary allergens and sugar, and using brain boosting supplements in order to get her as healthy as possible.

It’s a very scary thing and I feel like my entire heart and soul are directed toward this but sometimes I really miss being interested in art or music or something else, but when I think about it, I feel that this is ALL I care about right now and I need to let go of control of trying to do MORE when I know my heart wouldn’t be in it. Someday, I think I’ll be interested in other things again.

Enjoy the blogging and life.

Hugs,
Hannah

I was absolutely, positively sure that I would go to law school and practice family law. This was more of what I expected, but not what I “desired”. I was totally inspired by the blogging community and decided to change my major from law to writing. I have started a blog (it’s slowly but surely coming along) and will write for a style magazine for my college this fall. I hope to one day work for a fashion or health magazine or maybe a publishing company.
This is one of my favorite posts Katie! You are the best!!

I love the quote “The faster the fail, the quicker you will be to succeed!”

Great post Katie!!!!! For the longest time I had no idea what I wanted to be….now, I at least know what my passions are, which is partly thanks to the blog world as well. I had no idea how much blogging would impact my life!

I wanted to be a doctor or a dentist, badly.
But, over the years I’ve learned the hard way that while I love Biology and Mathematics, they dont love me back.
I’m going off to college in 8 days (!!!) in Boston,
and I’ve had to change my major to not biology but to nursing as there is no calculus involved.
I’m rather saddened about it, but I know that once I become a Nurse Practitioner I wont EVER regret my decision 🙂 And who knows? Maybe I’ll end up being both? 😀

I am probably one of your oldest posters here….. I have done so many things, joined the navy,
ran a day care center, worked for a steel company, work in the sweets industry now.
I am a work in progress and look forward to seeing what is around the next corner for me.

Lovely post, young lady, lovely post.

I’m glad I’ve known what I want to do since I was like 6. I feel bad for all of my friends starting to apply for college and even heading off to college now knowing what they want to do.

Love the post.

true story. when I was little, I went around telling everyone I wanted to be a baby cow when I grew up.

clearly, I changed my mind.

…or did I?

thank you for this post…it describes exactly how I have felt my whole life too! I have never known what I want to be, and I was always jealous of people who did know what they wanted to do and went to school specifically to become something. So I just continued my schooling to prevent having to find a “real” job, and I am now working on my PhD…but I still feel like I haven’t found my passion yet…Anyway, it is hearing stories like yours that encourages me that I will eventually find it!

When I was in high school, I always thought it would be cool to be a chef. But I also loved science, and figured it was more practical to follow that path instead of the chef path. So I went and got a degree in biology, and worked in fisheries. But I still had that passion for food and cooking. And eventually it dawned on me one day that I could combine my interests and skills into a career as a dietitian. The perfect marriage of food and science if you ask me. So here I am, back at school, getting close to finally finding my “perfect” career. You are never too old to make that change when you finally find what it is you love. You might think you are, but who cares if it means you only have 20, 10, or even 5 working years left. Why not spend them in the job of your dreams?

I think its crazy to expect to know what you want to do with your life at 18. I was lucky to have an idea but as ive gone through college my passions have evolved! Im so excited to see you following your dreams.

I feel most people don’t quite know what they want to do or say are actually doing it. It takes soul searching for sure! I am super lucky in the fact that I love my job and I am my own boss. It took years to get to that place though. I also love cooking and baking and I know I am building something out of that too.
The best way to look at life for me is, I would rather TRY and Fail then play it safe my whole life… (like many people do, that I know at least). 🙂
Here is to going for it! Go CCK. 🙂

I totally remember xanga!!!! I had one too….man. Those were the days 🙂

When I was young I always wanted to be a veteranarian. Then I wanted to be a writer. Then an administrative assistant (EWW, what was I thinking? Worked the job for a few years and hated it). But ever since my junior year of High School, I wanted to be a Nutritionist or a Registered Dietitian. That was 6 years ago and I STILL want to pursue nutrition. Thus, I’m headed back to school this fall to earn my BA in Nutrition Science! I think I want to major in Dietetics, but also maybe minor in Sports Nutrition.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher, chemist, or artist. As I got older and progressed though junior and senior high school, the choices narrowed down to teacher, because I was good with kids, or scientist, because I loved science class.
When we covered the Immune System in grade 11 biology, I excelled at it and thought it would be cool to study it in university. However, up until my junior year in university I was still occasionally debating being a teacher instead. I decided that I could pursue a career in science and work with kids on the side (as a Girl Guide leader volunteer), while it would be hard to be a teacher and do science experiments on the side.
I’m still loving being a scientist, and after three years of working as one and a year of grad school, I’m still so happy it’s the path I have chosen. And yes… I still study the immune system! I work on T cells, which are the “serial killers” that target and eliminate infected cells!

Gosh figuring out what you want to do when you grow up is such a challenge! I’m 24 and finally figuring out what I want to do… Now it’s just getting there 🙂

I am starting my second year of college next month and I go to a school where you have to declare a major. Luckily, I know generally what I want to do (I am a nutrition major!). However, there are so many choices that I somtimes don’t know what I want to do with it. I also think that what you said is also true with life, not just school or job decisions. I’ll be living with 5 girls that I don’t know too well. I only really know one of them okay and the other girl lived on the same floor as me but I don’t know her that much. THe other three are friends of either the girl I know “okay” or the girl who lived on the same floor as me. Haha, a bit confusing. But the point is that I’m not and cannot be sure what will happen. I ask myself, “will we be close?” or “who will I be close with?” are they just going to hang out with their friends and we will all do our own thing? I don’t know, but maybe that’s the best part, nothing is quite set in stone.

I’m totally still searching and I’m 25. I taught high school for 2 years, now I’m changing gears and pursuing a career in photography!

Yes! My parents instilled in me at an early age that I needed to have a goal to work towards…and it needs to make lots of money. It probably wasn’t the best parenting strategy, but the pressure to do well has put me in the top 10% of my class more than a few times.
I think you could definitely make this blog work for ya. It’s amazing!

I’m 29 and still don’t know! I do know that it’s my dream to be self-employed…I’m working on it!

I’m a blogger and a small-business owner, I’m 31, and I still don’t know what I want to be, but I know who I want to be. And that’s a person that isn’t confined to one thing or another. So, I have officially unofficially decided to stay in the state of entrepreneur. My heart isn’t passionate about one thing, it’s passionate and roomy enough for many, many things. Now, I don’t have to decide or stay committed to any one thing for life. Win-win! 🙂

Hi Katie,
I always, always, always wanted to be a wife and a mom. I never really gave much thought to the “career” side of things. I just wanted to create what I had longed for as a child and never had. So, somehow, on a wonderfully miraculous day, I met my sweet hubby and now, 25 yrs later, we have five children! When we dated we talked (jokingly) about having a dozen kids….so, we’re a bit behind on that one!! I also wanted to be happy. Just happy. To have fun and to enjoy my family and my life. We also talked about growing our family through adoption way back when we were dating and we now have a sweet new addition to our family (through adoption) that brings us all so much joy and laughter. It’s funny how those kid sized dreams can and often do, come true!

As for a “career” where I made money, I didn’t actually start thinking about that until the last 7 yrs or so and both Scott and I are working on creating the “financial” life we’ve always wanted on a conscious level (rather than just doing what we’ve always done because we’re good at it, even though it isn’t satisfying). So, this is fun too and I think we’re right about where you’re at, only much older! It’s okay though, cuz’ it’s not a race!

Enjoy the journey and follow your heart…I feel certain it knows the way!

This is such a wonderful post, Katie! Doors don’t always just pop open right in front of you… sometimes you have to search, and search HARD! But you’re right that that’s okay, and I think that in the end, you appreciate your destination even more if you’ve had to work for it.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a vet because I love animals so much. But now, I’m not so sure because there are so many other things I enjoy too! And I’m not stressing out about it. I’m just trying to get the best, well-rounded education I can and see where life takes me.

<3 <3

p.s. I think you would love the post I did today – it involves your cool whip, pancakes, and SPRINKLES 😀

I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU this is EXACTLY what I needed today. I am breaking up with my summer boyfriend, and leaving for school in a week. I love you oooodles.

Like most kids, my career choices changed every 6 months or so. However, when I was graduating high school I knew I wanted to go into sports med. My parents said no way and wanted me to be an engineer. I did what they wanted and hrmm what do you know, I hated it. I had no passion for it either. Four majors later, I’m taking classes for sports med and finally back where I wanted to be in the first place. 😀 Lots of good luck and well wishes to you Katie! I’m sure you’ve made the right decision for you.

When I was younger, I knew & made sure everyone I ever came into contact with (I love how kids just talk to aaaanyone) that I was going to be a storywriter when I grew up. Somewhere between grade 7 & high school, I knew I wanted to be a journalist & editor. Now I’m a journalist, but still working towards being an editor! It’s not a high paying job, but I think it’s pretty cool that I stayed true to what I knew I wanted to do when I was a kid.
I’m so happy you’ve found your passion! It shows, a lot 🙂

Perfect timing – I JUST wrote a post about my career “issues” as well!

http://www.kindabananas.com/2011/08/16/career-blues/

I had the same problem – i was forced to choose a major in college my junior year, so I went with the one that I had the most credits already filled. I’m 29 and I STILL don’t know what I want to do! I’m happy for people who know at 18, but I just have no clue! 🙁

I have gone through a bazillion career choices in my brain over the years, and to finally find massage therapy has been such a blessing! I love my schooling and I’m so excited to be a licensed therapist by the end of the year! 🙂

I’m about to graduate college, and I still don’t know what I want to do! I have ideas, but no real plan. When I was very little, I would say I wanted to be a writer-teacher-actress, and later it was shortened to just writer. I’ve since then moved away from the writing, and am looking at library science or maybe nutrition. I get worried sometimes, but really I’m only 21. There’s no reason I have to have my life figured out right now. Good luck, Katie! I’m so happy you found your passion. 🙂

My idea for the perfect career has changed many times during the years. I wanted to be a gymnast (too tall for this one…), a fashion designer, a swimmer, a mathematician, a singer, a teacher, a model, a journalist, a computer geek, an English philologist… Now I am a geneticist wanting to steal the job of the cleaning lady in our building. Go figure! Actually, all I ever wanted was to be happy. Still don’t know how to do it, though.

Hey Katie,

I’ve only been following you for a few weeks, your posts almost always make me drool. : ). When my son graduated from high school and asked me the question you’re posing, I just shook my head. When I was twenty I thought forty meant you had all your stuff together. Was I ever wrong about that. Some people actually have it together at age ten!!! Not me. (Or lots of others methinks.) I have done a lot of things over the years. And I think the trick is to learn what you can from each of the opportunities you are given. Those random skills and that attitude is going to make sure that you have a successful, satisfying life, no matter what you end up doing and when you discover it. For me? The jury is still out. I don’t know that I’ve found the sweet spot niche, but I’m still looking for it and gathering the keepers along the way.

I went through so many different ideas on what I wanted to be when I grew up, but it wasn’t until AFTER i finished my degree that I decided I really want to pursue personal training and nutrition. It is never too late I guess right 🙂

Great post Katie and excellent timing. I’m the same age as you and often feel rushed. I’m a college graduate and my problem is I want to do everything. Right now I work 2 part-time jobs, volunteer quite a bit and go to school-I love every second, but I guess I have to settle at some point (?)

Growing up I wanted to be a teacher and I studied to be a teacher in college and long story short, I got frustrated with education, but I’ve found other ways to work with kids 🙂 I’m still discovering myself and the great thing about being young is making mistakes. It’s ok, we still have 60+ years to find ourselves!

I’m sure everyone (normal) goes through this; I know I was slow in deciding too — I stayed in high school for TWO extra years (the glorious Grade 14) because my first idea was a flop — doctor. I was terrible at math and science so even though I felt sure I’d be happy helping people, it wasn’t looking good. I took grade 11 math twice because I didn’t feel that I understood well enough, got a 35% in grade 12 math. Chemistry I thought I was doing ok in until my teacher came up to me one day and told me I should drop out before I get another black mark on my transcript. I wasn’t too surprised, but to be told that I was doing so badly that I should get out was enough to get me to walk into the guidance office and say k what can I do. I puttered around the school for another year then decided to try co-op, and ended up LOVING it. I was always terrible at speeches but teaching was awesome. So now I’m going to University for another 4 years so I can go back to high school =p. Its funny how things work out but they do work out. and its super obvious that you have an amazing talent (and passion) in creating recipes and then sharing them with people who admire your skill. Hell, if blogging doesn’t work out EXACTLY the way you want you can always develop a vegan cook book (you wouldn’t even need a photographer =p) or open a vegan bakery. =)
Doing something you like is much more important than doing something that would break you down over time to a motivation-less drone. Who knows, maybe in another 3 years you will have found a different path, But for now, scary or not, this is what you want to do.
Good luck =)

Girl, youre adorable ♥

I’ve fought it, but I’ve known since I was 14 that I was supposed to be a missionary. Hopefully this is going to come true within the year of 2012 and I cannot wait. I really think I’m about to start one of the most exciting and fulfilling chapters of my life. And I can’t wait. 8 more months, let’s make the best of this!

PS I just wanted to say that you are absolutely beautiful and have lovely skin and hair. If you ever get a mean comment about your size please just let people know that you are within a healthy BMI and you are an active, healthy eating runner and that there is nothing wrong with that. I have always been curvy and hated my body for years because I thought being thin was the only way to be beautiful. This led me to a five year intensive battle with an eating disorder that I am in remission from for the past 4 years (praise God). But I absolutely HATE it when people say ‘you’re too fat/skinny/curvy/straight up and down/whatever’. We are women, and we are beautiful. I don’t care if you have zero curves or a thousand, God made us beautiful and we need to stop trying to ruin His handiwork. If He made sunsets and mountains and lakes and the aurora borealis, He knows beauty and can put it in any form He wants. We should aim for health and fitness, for strength and poise, not x sized jeans or y sized bras. This is an issue that I am extremely passionate about and struggle with a lot, but I just wanted to tell you that because I am sure (since you’ve mentioned it before and also just because I know people can be idiots) that you’ve gotten the ‘eating disorder’ comment before. And I am so sorry for that. People should never accuse anyone of having an illness (what if I just walked up to someone and said, ‘hey, you look diabetic!’; how is that ever okay?!) but they especially should not make that into a shame/blame issue, even if it were true. It’s just ridiculous. Anyway, just wanted to get that off my chest since I am very passionate on the subject. And with that I realized I should just get my own blog and stop writing novels in your comments section. =D

I love this post, Katie!

When I was in high school, someone asked me what one of my lifelong goals was. I said “to always stay thin.” That sounds superficial & rude, but I never meant it as a judgement on overweight people. What I meant was that I always wanted to make healthy choices in my life so that I would not die of heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes, or another diet-based disease. I was always interested in eating healthy & exercising. Now I see that my passion has always been in those two topics, but it took a while…

Your post reminded me of a horrible lost feeling I had after college. I never really knew exactly what I wanted to do when I was young, but I was sure about many things I did NOT want to do. As far back as I can remember, my parents & grandparents always reminded me of the importance of a good education. By the time I graduated college, I didn’t have passion for anything in particular, but thought I would land a great job simply because I earned a BS. …that didn’t exactly happen. After a year of hating my job & accruing debt, I ended up going back to school for 4 years total, to earn certificates in a field that didn’t even REQUIRE a degree (at the time). It was hard to do something that felt like back-peddling (try explaining to your friends working on an mba or med school that you are taking jr college level classes). Now I work in a financially & emotionally rewarding field I love, & have recently discovered a second passion: blogging about healthy food & working out. I spend time that should be dedicated to studying dreaming up different recipes, making them, posting them, etc. I enjoy it, but it’s a HUGE time suck. If I ever have a baby, blogging will be a challenge.

Tomorrow I will enjoy my lack of obligations & make a batch of your genius blondies!

I always knew what I’d end up doing/being but then that’s part of being psychic I guess. But even though I knew, I resisted it. What kid/teenager doesn’t resist doing what they know they’re meant to do? So instead I seriously planned on being a Solicitor/Lawyer because I was academically minded it made sense. But whilst I was at university I realised that wasn’t right for me and I was also learning to recognise and appreciate what I was really exceptional at, what I’d always been going to be good at – working with energy.

I love how inviting your blog is. It’s so welcoming! Plus obviously I’m a major Chocolate lover who has had to give up dairy (& refused to give up chocolate!) Loving your blog and starting to make your gorgeous recipes 😉

so glad you wrote this. i am afraid to follow my passion, i would love to do something food related, but then again i think of the bills and think, just stick to what’s making you some money.. maybe one day.

Thanks Katie for your healthy recipes & words of encouragement! I am 51 years old, married for 25 years and a Mom with one son who is in his last year of high school still deciding on which college to attend …Yikes ! I think about what my future will be like as an empty nester. I really like what you said about life is more about who I am right now and making it count, than what the future holds! I Thank God cause He holds our future!
I Enjoy reading your recipes & Blog!

When I was about 6, I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. Now I can barely spell neurosurgeon.

Then, I wanted to pursue business- I think it is a great way to change the world in a big way! … look what I ended up doing… still giving it a good go! =)