What would you do? (career question)?

Question

What if you were 43 years old and a single parent with one 17-year-old child......and you have a job that paid the bills, but you absolutely DESPISE your job. I don't mean that you just don't like it, I mean it is pure drudgery. You get physically sick sometimes just with working, with headaches, fevers, nausea, sore throat, etc., and then when you leave work you're fine. However, the only choices you have are the following:

1. Keep doing what you're doing and suck it up.

2. Go back to school for 5-6 years so that you can get a job paying enough to support yourself and your child.

I am so CONFUSED about this.......I don't know if it's because I'm afraid I'm too lazy to go back to school, but at the same time I don't want to suddenly wake up and be 60 years old, and still be at the same awful job, same circumstances. What would YOU do????

Answer 1

Life is too short to be unhappy, i have an excellent government job, but i have always wanted to be a teacher, so i am planning to start going to college during the day(i work overnight) and eventually be what i have always wanted to be. I would say, life is not expected, you don't want to die and not have done all that you wanted to do, i say, go back to school, who knows, if you live to see 80 you would be able to work 30+ yrs doing something you love

Answer 2

Go to school on-line and look for a different job. The new job doesn't have to be your life's goal, just a change of pace.

At 17, your child is mature enough to understand that you are unhappy and that you are trying to change that, even if it means a cut in wages.

Answer 3

My mother had the same predicament. She just switched jobs- she found another one that paid a little less, but in the time it would take to finish school to get a degree, you would get a raise and be making the same, if not more than at the job you despised. Whatever you do, don't stay in a job you hate, especially when it makes you physically sick.

Answer 4

Go to school part time. Look for a new job. There is more than one out there with out necessarily having 5-6 years of new schooling. In 5-6 years you won't be supporting your child anyway.

Answer 5

I tell my seventeen year old to get a job and help out.