Hey Terry,
My reply to your question "Have you figured out what you'd like to do?" following your March 21 post, "Procrastination! Why We Do It and What We Can Do About It" led me to explore in writing some things that I'm thinking about right now.
My goals for this year fit under the categories of house, health, and finances. I am making good progress in the two latter categories but little progress with the house.
Knowing me, it's because I'm doing too much. Another possibility is that I need to hire someone to help me. Eventually I'll figure this out.
Seven people in my circle are in varying stages of treatment for cancer. They were all diagnosed within months of each other. As a result, I found myself thrust into the role of supporter, of my friends and their family and friends.
Overnight it seemed I had become a support group leader again but this time about a health issue that I knew almost nothing about. Talk about stress. And I hadn't facilitated a support group since 1999.
I was feeling lost and unsure of myself, then a friend signed me up for an online support group for mothers. Reading the posts, I was impressed by the quality and number of responses. I wanted to participate but no longer have children at home.
Then you sent out information on this forum to everyone on your email list. I dropped in and was moved by an early post by Stardust. I posted my first response, and, thankfully, Stardust replied. I then read almost all of the posts that have been posted to date. I liked the quality of Eileen's writing, and more recently, yours too Terry.
For the last eight weeks or so I've asked myself repeatedly: Why are you here? Why are you doing this? What are you getting out of it?
These are important questions because I pledged to myself almost ten years ago that I would never put the community ahead of my family again.
With me, it's never one thing.
I'm here because I need to be with those whom I affectionately refer to as "my people". I feel both safe and comforted in the presence of ADD adults. By supporting people here, I feel more confident in my ability to support my dear friends who are going through cancer treatment.
But it's more than that. I haven't worked at this level of supporting people for ten years. I forgot how much I enjoy it, how deeply meaningful it is for me.
For the last couple of years I've been moving toward a career as an administrative assistant. But I have a problem. While I like being in a support role, I don't particularly like learning how to use new software, I don't enjoy managing data and files, and it frustrates me to be excluded from the fascinating work that my bosses and coworkers are doing. I don't want to file the information about the clients. I want to be the one working with the clients.
Reading and responding to posts here these last two months both stimulates and centers me. I'm thinking really hard about going back to school to train as a social worker or counselor. I'm just not sure how to make this work.
