Belated Fathers' Day Related Entry

I owe my Dad.

Attempting to do what I'm attempting to do can feel very intimidating sometimes. Returning to school to change careers now that I'm almost thirty. Looking at the prospect of not really beginning my career as a Veterinarian until I am in my mid to late thirties or past forty. It's very intimidating. It fills me with anxiety that I won't be able to make it. That I'm too old. That it is too late for me,. That I should just try to resign myself to a lifetime of banal, non-challenging nor personally rewarding work in customer service. I think those things, but sometimes when I'm on that line of reasoning I remember my Dad. He did it. He returned to school to change his career when he was older than I am now, after I was born, to try and change his career. When I was born my Father was two weeks away from being thirty, my Mother a few months behind him. He had been an elementary and middle school teacher alternately for a few years before I was born, and continued in those roles for a few years after. Some time after I turned Two he set in motion efforts to return to school and pursue his PhD in Education. He never actually completed it (though he came close, he is ABD; All But Dissertation) but he went for it and he did enter into a career in Educational Administration. And that is how I think of him, as a school administrator, primarily as a principal. However, my father was not actually an elementary school principal until I was nine years old and he was nearly forty.

The point of all this is that when I'm feeling like I've blown it, missed my chance and I'm too old to pursue my dreams it sometimes helps to think of my Dad's career. He was not on a straight track. He didn't even start to pursue what would become his definitive career in earnest until he was in his early thirties. I'm not my Father. He and I are very different people in a lot of ways, but on this I look to him as a source for inspiration, an example to renew my resolve when I am feeling overwhelmed or experiencing doubt about the viability of pursuing a career so distant from the type of work I've been doing for various employers since I was fifteen. Thanks, Pop.