When I grow up

When I was little I knew exactly what my dream job would be. I wanted a desk job. That is right. I wanted to be an office worker. I wanted a 9-5 job that when 5pm came around I could walk away from it, not bring work home. I wanted weekends off, 5 sick days and 2 paid weeks of vacation every year. Occasional overtime was acceptable but I did not want a job that would be my life. There was just nothing I felt that passionate about. I wanted a job to pay the bills & finance whatever interest I currently had. I wanted regularity of hours so I could plan my 'real' life easily around it.

I went to work in an office at 23 and held several intersting and not so interesting positions beofre I found my dream job. I worked as a telecom analyst for 800flowers in one of their call centers for 3 years. I was responsible for the call routing & system monitoring the agents performace. I analyzied the systems reports, helped plan staffing needs and the budget. I was paid well for my time 8:30a-5p and paid very well for any time after that. I could surf the web to my hearts content & as long as my work was done no one could ever really say I was goofing off because most of the people near me had no idea what I was really doing. I really really enjoyed my job, even the frustrations were amuzing, because it was exactly the job I had always wanted. I left it when my son was born & I don't regret it. I had planned to go back to work but my child care arrangements fell through & I realized I was actually kinda happy about it.

Now I am a SAHM. My oldest starts school 3 mornings a week this fall. My youngest will do that next year and the year after that both boys will be in school all week. I have started thinking about what I will do then. My old job is gone, reorganized away a year or so ago. So I can't go back to it. Having already done what I wanted to do, I am sort of at a loss on where to turn now. The 9-5 thing no longer answers my needs.