I’ve been putting a lot of thought lately into what I’m going to do once I’m able to go to school and work. I’ve tossed a lot of ideas around in my head, and I have come to the realization that if there’s anything holding me back, it’s the fact that I want to do too much. I know I want to go to school. I don’t want to end up back in retail unless it’s a part time job, and even then it’d frustrate me. I feel like I’ve dealt with my fair share of shoppers and even though I’ve found the general population is nicer here, you know people get cranky over pretty stupid things.

A few things I’ve thought of going to school for:

• Cooking - I’ve had an interest in food for a long time. I like playing with different flavours and trying different combinations and seeing the reactions of the people trying the food I make. The thing that worries me about this is that I know that with any sort of formal cooking training, I’d end up in the service industry, and I don’t know how I feel about that. I’d hate to spend all the money on cooking school (training, classes, whatever) and have it end up being just a hobby.
• Writing - I do enjoy writing. I don’t know how good I am at it, but it has always been a relaxing thing for me to get my ideas out on paper (or the computer screen, as the case may be). My big worry with this one is that I don’t know where to begin, let alone whether I’m any good at it, and so I may end up a starving artist, as the case may be.
• Editing - This is another passion of mine. The people who know me best (or even the people who’ve read my blog regularly!) know that grammar and spelling are something that I nit-pick about even in a casual context. I’m always interested in how words work together and how sentences are formed and punctuated. This is another thing that I don’t know how to get started or whether it’s even a viable job option, to be honest. I suppose it is something that could be done freelance in addition to a “real” job.
• Web Design - This one is something I know there are classes for, and something I’ve been considering even more so than the rest. I know that there’s a need for competent web designers and web programmers and I also know that it’s something I can pick up fairly quickly with the proper training. It’s obviously something I do in my spare time, so it’s not a problem of hating what I do, but rather whether I’ll be creative enough for it.
• Psychology - I actually started going to school for this right after high school, and quit when I went through some life changes and didn’t really have the opportunity to take the classes. The problem with this is that I’d have to go to a university, not the community college here, which would cost more than I really can afford at this moment. Might consider this in the future, once the money is coming in from whatever I choose to take as a career.

Does anyone else have any ideas they can think of that might be good? I know that’s a fairly open-ended question, but as I keep telling myself, I’m able to make a decision now that I’ll be satisfied with, instead of jumping into a dead-end job to make minimum wage. It’s not every day that kind of opportunity comes around, so I don’t want to take it for granted!