Thread: It's Like Shuffling a Deck of Cards

Thanks for sharing your story, Brad. As always, it was very interesting. Sounds like you've done lots of interesting stuff (most of all working on the M1A1 Abrams engine; when I was younger I wanted to enlist/go ROTC and join up in the armored cav to be in the Abrams).

Also, I thought your mention of the value of experience vs a degree interesting. Last... summer I think it was, I was looking for part time work while my grad school course load was lighter. I applied to work at a gas station. I was not hired because I had too little experience in "retail" even though I had my BS in physics...

Congrats IceDog!

Congratulations Brad! So much of life is what we make it and I am warmed to know that you are making yours what you want it to be.

-Rob

Way to go, Brad! Thanks for sharing that with us. I really appreciate it.

Chris L

Well done on persisting & actually having the balls to take such a different path! Admirable mate! Good luck & i hope you enjoy it.

congradulations!!!! i understand i am currently taking classes cause i to am unemployed at the moment. GOOD LUCK!

I went back to med school when I was 41. The oldest guy in my class was 52. There's nothing you can't do.

What got my attention more than any other thing about your situation is your reference to what you dreamed about being when you grew up. That is nearly word for word the question I ask every kid over about 12 years of age when I see them. That teenage dream sets the intuitive stage for what that person is likely to be most satisfied with as a workaday job in the future. This may be really old theoretical stuff, but Erik Erikson isn't so far off the mark with regard to developmental psychology in this area. The frustrations we feel as adults are usually the friction between doing something not quite what we are good at, versus finding that thing and achieving it.

This is often the source of strange behavior at midlife for the very reason that we are old enough now to start looking back at what we dreamed of becoming and for whatever reason did not. A lot of adults are afraid of changing in that direction and then things begin to break down and craziness results from the frustration. Social forces, employer forces, economic forces all come together to add to the frustration and are often barriers to change. People are afraid of folks who make dramatic changes to break away from a frustrating career/job.

I'll make no illusions about being happy as a doctor in this economy and with the current hubbub about health care, but I am personally satisfied that I have achieved a place that I am able to fully exercise my potential. Along the way I picked up various and diverse talents, but those really paid the rent while I was waiting for the right time to come along to realize what was truly needful for my own development.

Some of us are slower than others. Welcome to that club Brad. There's nothing wrong with being multi-threaded.

Ahoy Brad ! That is good news and congrats, just stick with it and don't look back. I have a grammar school education and if it wasn't for spell check my posts would reflect that.

I started doing union ironwork when I was in my teens and did it for almost 20 years when I had to quit due to injuries sustained over the years,

No longer being able to work iron was the worst thing imaginable to me at the time. I had an 8th grade education and no prospects. My dark cloud's silver lining was that my misfortune led me into the tattoo business where I have prospered for the past twenty years.

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and remember what our man FDR said,"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Inspiring - AMNews: June 21, 2004. 61-year-old graduates medical school ... American Medical News

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat...-learner_x.htm

Life is a smorgasbord - never lose your appetite.

Thank you for the great story worth to be told.
Made me feel optimistic. Every now and then things turn out to be right, even in the real life. I'm truly happy for you.
Welcome onboard!