This is kind of easy. It would go all the way back to grade school- that is, if I would listen to adults or myself at that age. I would have studied the sciences and math harder and tried to better understand it.
Naturally going back that far I probably wouldn’t have done any of those things. So instead, let’s go back to that last year of high school when I was applying for schools. First I might have actually tried to figure out where my talents were, and what I could do with those. Or maybe I would have continued and headed to UT for school, which I did, but instead I actually would have passed more classes and studied harder and taken the time to figure out the purpose of that stupid class that was supposed to help you pick out a major. It didn’t help, I just chose the first thing I found interesting just so I could not take it again.
And then maybe after that year was a total fail, because let’s face it, it was; instead of heading out of UT and down to UD, I actually would have stopped to think about what I wanted to do. Maybe it would have been helpful to spend that summer or fall before switching schools learning new things, shadowing/observing different professions, or traveling and working at various places to see what I liked.
But no, I shipped on down to UD, where I had some amazing 4 years and certainly don’t regret that, but I wasn’t focused. I started in journalism because I enjoyed writing and editing. I did that for a year, and then one day my friend told me how her roommate was studying for graphic design, and how she thought I would be great at that. I was, I loved it. But it hasn’t gotten me too far. (Or maybe someone could have just said, FYI get an internship!) I’ve had 2 jobs that related to that, and one I left for the other, the other I was laid off…hellooooo recession! Haven’t been paid full time for it since!
I’ve gone back to school for Massage Therapy which I have worked and continue to do so a bit. Then there are other health professions I am currently researching- thus why it would be nice to have a better understanding of math and science before now 🙂
Wow, I feel like you just described my life! Except I went for theatre in undergrad. ‘Nuff said! And I was recently contemplating massage therapy too! Then I took one look at the tuition fees and yikes!
I don’t regret going for massage, but maybe I should have looked at the market for it. My area seems to be SATURATED with LMTs. Plus we have Massage Envy, 3 of them, and then everyone is doing a Living Social or Groupon deal. Its very competitive and unfortunately those “deals” have really brought down the quality of massages, IMO. I can’t live on $12/60mins of work. That what a Groupon essentially pays the LMT. And some people don’t even tip, or they tip for what they paid, not what the service is originally worth.
I don’t believe the tuition I paid was too expensive, I went to school for a year, and everything I paid was less than $10k for the full program including fees and anything extra I had to buy. Which is pricey in this economy, which means you really really need to know why you want to be a MT and what you’re going to do with that.