Getting To Know You...

My friend Tanya has hosted a Getting To You Know question on her blog, so I thought I'd join in on the fun. The question was: What did you want to be when you grew up? Well...I'm a little sentimental talking about it. For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. Not just a writer...but a great author. As a child, I wrote short stories and poems. As an adolescent, I wrote DRAMATIC poetry and longer stories, about love and loss and death...all things I thought I knew all about but really had no clue! haha! As a young adult, I wrote skilled papers in my College Comp 1 and 2 class. I remember my teacher writing on my paper "You will be a great writer one day." Did I ever cling to that thought. It was my dream. She had written on another paper that I should major in journalism - but if you know me, you know I am not a risk taker, and journalism is a risky business.

I still love to write and dream about writing a novel one day. I start novels and get about 2 pages into them and then just can't pull it all together. I lose confidence in my abilities and start to wonder what I am doing and why I'm even trying it. Then I thought, perhaps I could write a children's book. YES! That's it! A children's book! I drew out my characters and thought of a great idea to write about and then thought I'd better Google search the topic to see what my competition was. Low and behold, another woman had previously had the EXACT same idea as I did and had a successful line of books out on the same topic. Sigh...

So, I pretty much gave up. I mean...pretty much. Every once in awhile I get the idea again and think...that would make a GREAT storyline. (Tanya - maybe I can write a great play one day and you can star in it?! lol!)

Somehow, I knew I wanted to be a dietitian when I went to college. Don't ask me how I arrived at that decision and what research I had done on the topic. I just remember already having a major when I registered my Freshman year at UCA. I finished college super early (in three years), got accepted into the UCA Dietetic Internship/Masters program, finished my Masters degree and Internship the next August, and shortly thereafter passed my exam and became a Registered Dietitian. I took the job that I have right out of college and MAN! was I clueless! After 3 1/2 years of working with children with special needs, I still don't feel like I have a clue sometimes!

Being a dietitian is not all what I thought it would be. Sometimes, or I guess a lot of the time, I question this decision I have made. I love nutrition. I think the human body is fascinating and the role that food and nutrients play in the body is just amazing to me. However, there are so many things I struggle with, especially working in the population that I work in. A lot of my time is spent doing countless evaluations (I have to follow roughly 400 children), making menus, reading food labels, and counseling parents. I love doing some of it, but some of it I detest - like meeting with a parent because their child is obese. What do you say to a parent of a 95 pound 4 year old who looks you right in the eye and says, "But she's not overweight, look how tall she is! She is just going to be a big girl." ...

Many times I feel like I do no good in my job, and other times I feel like I really help people. But I guess that's the way many jobs are. About a year and a half ago I finally decided to go back to school. My husband was in school full time and I would come home and just lay on the couch - this was before I had a blog - and was just bored. So I decided to go back to school for my MBA, and in December I finished my MBA with emphasis in Health Care Management.

So now what? I'm still in the same position for the same company. I guess my ultimate goal is to work as an Office Manager for a medical clinic of some sort, but am trusting God to lead me in the direction that I need to go. I would also love to be at home 1 or 2 days a week with my baby girl.

I get disappointed sometimes, I have ups and downs, I think that I don't want to leave my company because of all the great people I work with and sweet children, and then ultimately I just have to hang it all up and let God lead me.

So that is probably 1000 times more than what you wanted to know...but there you have it!

Phil. 4:6 NIV

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."