The Working Life: College and Educational Opportunities

Dear Chris, your words inspire me.         I just got a letter this morning from my job-coach at the Vocational Rehabilitation office. I have an appointment with her this week.    I'm 50 years old , heavily medicated and slowed down and my cognitive ability isn't that great.         What I do have going for me though is that I'm a proven public speaker and I have a near genius IQ.

   Question is, what do I want to do ?     I can't seem to find any direction.      I played piano when I was younger and had a stint as a salesman in my early 20's as I was being diagnosed.         Any suggestions ?

Sincerely,

Don

During my early years with SZA I belonged to a clubhouse (Four Seasons Club) modeled after Fountain House. I had the privledge of touring Fountain House.

I was the first member to get a TEP job. That job lead to one that paid more.

On Tuesday the 9th of December my speakers group has a gig at Four Seasons. I am thrilled to go there and speak. The club was a good experience for me.

Once again I will be going full circle.

Dave

When finding a job it is often necessary to find yourself first.  Many times I would go out and find a job simply because the ad was in the paper and I had a resume ready.  Or because a family member pressured me to take the first thing that came along.  And none of those jobs lasted very long.

Like you said, it is good to do a personal evaluation of skills and interests and to consider what is right for you right now.  Don't underrate or overrate yourself, although that is certainly easy to do.  And sometimes a past success (pre-sz) does not guarantee future success in a certain job environment.

After I had tried and failed a variety of jobs, I finally decided to list 3 jobs I knew I could do.  At that particular time, they had to be low stress and not too demanding mentally.  I decided I could sack groceries, be a janitor, or an assembly line/repetitive job.  I took a job sacking groceries and cleaning restroom and emptying trash containers at a chain grocery store.   And it worked out very well.  The only problem was adjusting to the constantly changing schedule each week.  I didn't have to worry about learning new instructions or remembering if V came before W or 7 came after 3 (I had failed a filing job!)  For 8 months I performed admirably there, until my father got seek and needed 24x7 care and I chose to quit the job and take care of him.

Now what I would like to do is take a nurse's aide certification course.  And you can take a 6 week course where they cram in as much as they can every day, or I can take a local college course which spreads it out over a semester.  This would enable me to take care of ill people in their homes or at a nursing home.  I love working with the elderly, especially.  I don't have a class scheduled yet, but I think I could excel at that.  And yes, it would involve emptying bedside toilets, changing diapers, bathing patients, etc.  I can do that, and I would be in an environment that I liked.  Not many people like to be around the mentally or physically ill elderly population.

The big consideration for me is whether the job is low stress.  I don't consider it "beneath me" to do any kind of honest job, although I admit I am a little disappointed that I can do the administrative asst job I had prior to being diagnosed.

Thank you for your post, Christina.

Carolyn

CR