Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Resources for ME

I thought I would pick the brains of this wonderful community.

As DS ages, he is becoming more independent. This includes more online learning in his school curriculum, which frees up blocks of time. These blocks of time are getting bigger each year. It has me thinking of what happens a few years down the road when all of his learning will likely be online (we are thinking of Davidson's Online program really hard).

Which leads me to my quest to figure out what I want my next chapter in life to look like. I am sort of stuck. I am someone who is really good at anything I try to do, but the only thing I have been great at is being a mom. I don't mean to sound arrogant in the previous statement. Prior to parenting, there wasn't anything I really wanted to commit to. I would pursue opportunities that I had never done before or sounded like a good challenge. Then move on to the next when my interest waned. I very much followed the "It's not worth doing if it isn't hard..." mentality. After DS, I see that line of thought is completely bogus.

With DS, I encourage him to play to his strengths, follow his interests, etc. My strengths to be a be a bit more...dilute.

Intellectually, I am somewhere in the top quarter or so within the gifted community. I am definitely not the very top, like many on this board.

I am also considering going back to school for a terminal degree (my current degree is a master's). The problem is there are literally 8 different areas that I feel I could do well, each with pros and cons. I do not want to work at a university, which makes me question returning to school as well.

What resources are there for people like me who can do many things, but can't really seem to pick one?

Off the top of my head:

-parlay your experiences parenting a 2e child into paid or unpaid work as a parent advocate, or special educator/GT/2e consultant
-tutor other low-prevalence learners
-go back to grad school and become a licensed neuropsych specializing in 2e learners (as we've established many times, I think, there are precious few of those!)
-start all over, with reflecting on and exploring the situations, tasks, projects, settings, etc. that make you feel the most engaged and in tune, look for common threads, and search for/create a work context that employs them.
-if you are blessed not to need employment to maintain financial stability, there is also the option of simply enjoying your omnivory, and learning/doing each of your different areas in turn or in parallel.

I think many of us have multiple interests, and even multiple areas above average. I use some in my profession, some in my family life, some in my faith community, some in other volunteer settings. Not everything is used at every moment. Some will never be developed to my fullest capacity, but that's okay, because there would have been a cost associated with doing so that I'm not willing to pay (in time/development lost from other areas, in relationships, in personal breathing room and rest).

You have many good options before you (just as your DC will when college/career decisions come around!)...so in some ways there are no bad choices.

More practically, you could also try some career interest inventories, ask people who know you well what kinds of professions they see you in in the future, or try a few months volunteering or interning in each of various fields, to see if they become increasingly or decreasingly appealing to you.

I went through three different fields, all of which were viable options, before finding my current one. I just did so before kids.

In addition to the wonderful career/vocation ideas, have you considered a delving into a new hobby/avocation?
There are many interests which can be practiced at different challenge levels. For example: astronomy, gardening, knitting to name a few. Among these hobbies one can find certifications, societies, online forums, and opportunities for authorship/presentations/fundraising in addition to volunteerism and/or charity.

Portia, you know I so enjoy our talks, and I feel we have many similarities in our backgrounds and preferences. As a (fellow?) intellectual/professional dilettante speaking from experience, I've found taking a project or cause-based approach has made me happiest.

I'd recommend you spend some time quietly reflecting on the experiences of motherhood and homeschooling that have been most appealing to you. What memories with your DS stand out most? Which of his needs required the most ingenuity to meet? Are there any setbacks you encountered along the way that you think need to be solved for a large population of students? Do you feel strongly that your chosen approach to educating your DS should be economically available to more families? What role did 2E play in your experience? Etc.

For outside resources, uou might like to pair your introspection with the book "What Color is Your Parachute". It provides a structured point of departure for determining subjects, work environments, causes, and work attributes preferences, it's a quick read, and available at most public libraries.

Here's a quick example

You loved the toddler years and designing play-based games for your DS. Maybe you're a candidate to design a specialized pre-school curriculum that provides differentiated learning options, which you could license electronically to school districts or sell through a proprietary chain of schools you run. If you feel strongly about equality in access to education, it could be started as a philanthropic initiative and donated to those in need.

Happy to discuss further in PM.

It's nice to be good at everything, but "you can do anything you want" isn't much help in paring down your options, is it? A side benefit of that, however, is the ability to synthesize areas of strength. Maybe there's not a role out there that fits you because you haven't created it yet.

As an example: My current profession is computer systems engineering, where I have to understand complex topologies, anticipate problems, and fix problems before they can ever occur. In my spare time I'm an avid consumer of both history and current events, and I've got performance experience in music, theater, and public speaking.

Synthesizing all of that, I keep kicking around the notion of making my next life in politics, because wouldn't it be a pleasant change if we had some leaders who actually knew how to fix something? We mostly get our politicians from legal and financial sectors instead - how's that working out?

I found it helpful to go through Johnson O'Connor aptitude testing - they tell you not only what you'd be good at (which for many on this board is "about anything you want to do ..."), but also and more valuably, what types of employment or pursuits other people with a profile like yours have found rewarding, engaging, etc., and what types might be frustrating/unfruitful.

http://www.jocrf.org/