what i want to be

I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up anymore. Maybe I never really had it figured out. That thought kind of scares me. Everyone always pointed to me as the person who had a definite career plan. The one thing I’ve always been gung-ho about is being a reporter. I wrote for my middle school and high school newspapers. I interned at newspapers during high school and college. And of course I worked as a reporter for several years post-college. But now I don’t.


Once upon a time I had a dream of being a reporter. I lived that dream for several years and still love it, but now I have branched out to another career field – educational non-profit management. But will I stay in this field forever? I don’t know because I have yet to develop Plan B for my career. Everyone always said have a Plan B if your first career choice doesn’t work out. Perhaps I should have listened.

In my circle of friends, most of them have a master’s or are working on a master’s or PhD. Officially I am the dumb friend with just a bachelor’s degree. Family members have always encouraged that I get a masters. I would if I knew what I wanted to be. I don’t like school enough to just go for the sake of going. My program of study and all the classes associated with it must be one that genuinely interests me if I want to complete it with passing grades. I learned that the hard way in undergrad. Classes I enjoyed had A’s, B’s and the occasional C. Everyone thing else was a C or D. I don’t want to make the same mistake in grad school. And don’t even get me started on student loans. I like to travel too much to accumulate more debt. I’m trying to pay off a loan now from undergrad.

I thought about getting an MBA in Marketing. Only a few of the classes interest me. My alma matter is offering a MA in Mass Communications with a specialization in social media which seemed appealing at first. But what would I use it for? Someone has told me several times I should be an academic advisor, but that would require a degree in counseling, higher education and the like. I don’t have an undergrad foundation in any of that. What if I’m not interested in those courses?

Ideally I want a career that allows me to use my journalism skills within the educational field. I like journalism, I like education and most of all I like school holidays. So what degree can get me there? That is the million dollar question.