While driving to work this morning I was thinking about my childhood and some of the things I use to do. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house and while some days were great, because everyone always stops by grandma's on nice summer days, other days was mostly just chill. I would find myself lying at the foot of their bed watching Judge Judy, All My Children, General Hospital and the five o'clock news all before falling asleep for a nap. Being a kid was so easy and we never realized it until we began “adulting” but now that I am getting older (I have to stop saying that as though I’m 40 and know it all lol) I am realizing how some of the things I took excitement to as a kid, when I was just lying around bored, I grew to love and pursue as careers and hobbies as an adult.
There were many things I did as a kid, while I have many siblings I was an only child in my household and most of the time I was at my grandparents’ house I was the only child, so making fun for myself was something I always had to do. One thing I realized I always did as a kid that I love doing now is organizing things. I would always organize the food in my grandmother's pantry in the basement, I would sort of play grocery store clerk. When I had to go downstairs to put away the extra groceries, I would put everything into a place from plastic dishware to paper towels, even to this day I have to refrain from trying to organize everything although I know they’d appreciate it. The grocery store clerk came in when I would scan the items before putting them in place, I guess I was really counting inventory. I have never worked at a grocery store or did inventory for a store, however I enjoy organization and fixing things up. I rearrange and organize my home every couple of months, I am always finding the best way to maximize the space and things I have and I love doing it, I can see me doing home décor and organization at some point in my life.
My grandparents' went grocery shopping once a month, and still to this day I am trying to perfect my grocery list to be able to do the same. I mean this was done for a house of four and the extra grand-kids who came by for food weekly. It was amazing how my grandma budgeted and stretched her food and was able to get everything she needed for filling good food. Budgeting was something I picked up on greatly, I have good saving skills and I am hoping to gain more with learning to coupon. I am also planning to shop once a month as well, my only twist will be planning out my meals weeks in advance to keep track for my fitness goals. I will go shopping this Saturday and prep Sunday.
One area I cannot deny that I knew early on was an interest of mine was writing. I have always loved to write and wrote my first short story in fifth grade. It was a small story and it wasn’t much but the adults around me loved it, and they gave me great feedback. They spoke highly of my writing as a kid and at the time I just enjoyed doing it, it was my outlet. I had no one to express myself to as I did not live in the same house as my siblings and being a full blown Scorpio, sharing my thoughts verbally just don’t happen often. I would get allowance and I bought myself a journal so I could always write. I still have that journal to this day and I have a great idea in the making for what I will do with the memories it holds.
As I got older, I was always the student who didn’t mind writing an essay for class and within time it was clear that I would go into some form of writing. When I first enrolled in college I wanted to study psychology, I wanted something outside my comfort zone but I still held interest in, after one semester I realized, I was a writer. I changed my major to Journalism, it wasn’t the writing I was used to, however it would push me outside my comfort zone as news writing is very different from essay. Here to say, I received my degree in Journalism with a minor in English from Western Michigan University.
At some point you feel as though you’ve outgrown the things you loved as a child, and in some cases that is true, but in reality you will always love to do the same things, your skill level will just increase. If you’re good at those things you will expand them into careers or even hobbies that pay. I began rethinking activities I enjoyed and thought about how I could fuel some free time doing them and I came up with countless ways and ideas. I was sort of brainstorming my brain for older skills tempting to form new ones and it was working. I would suggest if you’re reading this to do the same, write down some things you loved doing as a child that you can remember, and compare how they shaped the jobs and career choices you’ve made today. If they haven’t showed any correlation, try to analyze some activities that you can shape into your current lifestyle, we all want to do more we just sometimes don’t know what that more is and instead of looking for outside influence, how about we look inside and take from who we are and build on that.
