Week 25 – What Do I Do Next?

Introduction

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “What do I do next?” I have come to that place several times in my life.

High School

When I was in high school, I really didn’t want to go to college. I wanted to graduate high school, get married, have babies, and let my husband provide all the income for us. I only wanted to work as a secretary, IF I had to work at all. I really didn’t want to work. In other words, I wanted to become my mother. There was only one problem – I had never dated all through high school!

This was the first time I asked the question, “What do I do next?” In my junior year of high school, I decided that the fantasy of getting married, having babies, and letting someone else provide for me was not going to work. I had to come up with another plan. At the time I was taking an accounting course, so I decided I would go to the local university and major in accounting.

College

The Summer after I graduated from high school, I was off to the local university majoring in Accounting. I loved everything about going to college except Accounting. It was in my third Accounting course that I realized I really did not like it. Here I came to the second time I asked myself, “What do I do next?”

When I told my parents that I wanted to change majors, they asked me what I wanted to go into. The only thing I really wanted to change into was Psychology. I loved those courses and I got A’s in them. My father told me in no uncertain terms that he “would not pay for that bullshit!” At the time, my father was paying for my schooling and I could see no other way to continue without his support. This lead me to graduate in Accounting even though I didn’t like it.

Work Experience

I did not receive any offers for jobs I interviewed for in my senior year of college. This led me to again ask “What do I do next?” I started interviewing at places in Birmingham, Montgomery and even in my own hometown because I knew people who lived in those towns. None of those interviews led to a job offer either.

Even though I did not know anyone there, the next place I branched out to was Atlanta. It was close to home and it was here that I got a job. I had several jobs around Atlanta, before I eventually I ended up working for and retiring from the State of Georgia Department of Revenue. I worked the majority of my time there in the Compliance Division enforcing the laws of the Georgia Tax Code. (In ninth grade I had thought about being a lawyer; now I was enforcing the law and I loved it.)

What do I do next?

I did not realize until I got in The Master Key Experience that all along I had been answering this question the same way even though my answers were always different. One day in the MKE we were instructed to write on some flip cards the question, “What would the person I intend to become do next?”

Ah ha. That was it! “What would the person I intend to become do next?” I had been using that question all along to help me answer the question “What do I do next?” I had been letting the person I wanted to become lead me on the path of where I go in my life.

Conclusion

If you ever come to a crossroad in your life and you don’t know what to do next, just let the person you intend to become lead you. Ask yourself the question, “What would the person I intend to become do next?” After you ask it, take it to a sit. Sit quietly and wait. I have found that answers always come if I am quiet and listen.

Click here If you would like to read another post from my time in The Master Key Experience or here to read what one of my fellow students had to say about their Week 25 experience.

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