Roads Not Taken, Part II

Here's what randomly escaped my mouth during one of those always-interesting conversations with my writer's group gals tonight: I declared that one of the "alternate universe" paths I could have seen/could still see myself taking would be to spend my days as a combination of wedding officiant and childbirth educator/doula, perhaps with a little hospice care thrown in. But it makes sense, actually. What could be more interesting or meaningful to a people-oriented person like myself than to spend my days being around other people's big life events (marriage, birth, death), providing education, perspective, a sympathetic ear, a supportive presence, etc? Each of those activities would be satisfying in a different way. I could draw on my attention to detail, my dramatic training, my teaching ability, and my listening/empathy skills. Not the type of job(s) that fits easily around having small children, mind you, so I'll have to put it off for a few years, but a tempting fantasy nonetheless.

I seem to be thinking a lot about alternate job paths lately. Maybe I'll post about some others tomorrow. I'm generally going to try to resist figuring out the color of my parachute and all that for a while though--I think I'm about to have all the big life upheaval and changes that I can handle for awhile. But I figure writing some of this down to come back to later can't hurt. I'll probably need the reminder(s).