Monday, March 2, 2009

What I want to be when I grow up

Today a friend of mine paid me a very high compliment. "If you have 7or 8 years spare time, you should go to Medical School, you'd make a great doctor." She said so, because I correctly diagnosed her mystery illness. Not my first time. But I don't think it's so much that I have a gift for diagnosing medical mysteries, I just know too much, and too many medical mystery sorts of people.
It was such a sweet thing to say, an honor really. But I do NOT want to go to medical school. It got me thinking about what I DO want to do. Besides being Mom that is. There was a time I did. When I was "asked to leave" pharmacy school, aka flunked out, I decided to come back with a vengence, and get my Biology, raise my grades, determined to kick 18 kinds of butt, and go to Med school. Well, that worked for a semester. I worked nights at the hospital, and put myself through school...for a semester, then I hurt my back. I barely graduated. And decided the high stress life of doctors and/or med students was not the life for me. My Mom did Med school when I was in elementary/middle school, and she was never home. Eric and I wanted to get married, and start a family. I just wanted to work in a lab. I was content with that. I wanted the kind of job, I could go home and just be at home.
In California, I couldn't get a lab job, nobody wanted to hire me knowing we were leaving in 2 years. But by omitting that little detail, I got a great retail job, at a jewelry store. A friend of a friend whose blog I stalk regulary recently said, "I'm such a magpie, bright shiny things are my downfall." I'm the same way. And except for the "For You Today..." schmoozing, I loved it. I loved being such a part of everybody's happy occasions, or solving a little mystery, like what is this stone, getting a ring off a finger that had been there 15 years, or pulling a knot out of a chain that had been knotted for 10 years. I just wanted to learn the skills of jewelry repair. That looked like a cool job. If our repairmen wanted to be around people, they could be, or they didn't have to be. I liked both aspects.

And I've decided. When I grow up, I want to be in Jewelry Repair. For Christmas Eric asked if I was interested in a combo Birthday/Christmas present. That meant it was going to be HUGE! Turns out he wanted to enroll me in jewelry repair correspondance school. How awesomely sweet! And yes, the perfect gift. Then again, Eric doesn't choose crap, he knows me and if he can't buy the perfect thing, he won't get anything. But with the baby coming, I know I would NOT be getting around to it for quite a while. Maybe more than one while. I have some other really awesome gifts gathering dust in my friends' basement though, and I wouldn't want a year or two's worth of coursework gathering dust. I said No thank you. I've read you can be a better Mom if you take the time to better yourself too. So, although I'm not actively pursuing, I do have a plan. But When the boys are both in school...I'm thinking that will be what I want to do.
I have this vision, and you may laugh, but here it is. In a corner of our basement, I have a jeweler's bench. And there's a comfy chair nearby. I will have my own business, jewelry repair (or custom creations) running out of my home, in the basement. Here's the awesome niche I plan to get into. You know how you know someone that won't let their wedding band out of their site, and they'd rather run around with a smooshed ring, or something that doesn't fit, than give it to "strangers". Well, that's where I come in. You make an appointment, come on over, grab a cup of something warm, and I fix your jewelry while we chat. Your jewelry isn't out of your sight. I get girl time on my own schedule, they get peace of mind, AND I get to play with jewelry at the same time. That's my great plan. We'll see how it works.
No med school for me.
Maybe Chris will go to Medical School. He would be good at it. He certainly has a gift in the hospital setting of not stressing out--cool under pressure, and always a positive outlook; and you should see how friendly he is with the nurses. Although he'd also make an excellent Pastor, he and God have certainly demonstrated they are pretty tight, and he's always arguing when Pastor tries to give a sermon.

2 comments:

Carrie said...

This sounds perfect for you!!! And, once I'm done having babies, I want my wedding rings resized and possibly sautered together. I'm deathly afraid to leave them with a jeweler because I don't want my stones switched. You'd be exactly what I'm looking for :)

amypfan said...

Hey, that was me! Thanks for solving the mystery illness, by the way..... now if you could only give me drugs too to save on those huge medical bills.... :)

Anyway, my wedding ring also needs to be resized, so I can be your second customer after Carrie!