Turning a passion into a profession!

[DJFyrewolf36]

I have been struggling since I got out of high school with what I want as a carreer. I have tried various things and nothing really seemed to stick with me. Eventually I dropped out of college and have been working bottom of the barrel jobs...getting by without really getting anywhere. I could probily work at my job at the same wage forever and be ok but I know in my heart I will never be happy at it. I do like my job but it isnt a carreer with any room for improvement and I feel myself wanting to half ass my work. This isn't fair to my company or myself. I know no job is perfect but I do know work without passion becomes meaningless. I am working as far in this proffession as I want to go (security). I was tossing the idea around in my head of becoming a paralegal and getting into law because it is an extension sort of of what Im doing now...and the numbers are good. Id make money...but my heart wouldn't be into it. Id be a lot richer monitarily but Id feel the same exact way I do now...if I even passed school. I realzed that there was a reason I dropped out of school...I was persuing things that I never had a true passion for. Two things in my life have followed me always, music and machines. Music I love but if I had to go to class for it Id probibly *eyeroll* and fall asleep...that and Im convinced that no class can make a person into a DJ lol. Its a hobby, its a source of spiritual focus and common ground with my family and friends. It could never become a job (I dont even like djing for money, music should be free for the world to enjoy and love). So what about my other passion? I love machines, specifically putting them together and fixing them, cars in particular. For so long though Ive been told that I am the wrong gender for mechanic work and up until now I fed right into that excuse. Today, I saw a man on pbs that had no hands drum better than just about anyone Ive seen. I got to thinking, if a man that lost his hands can get on his knees and thank God for his condtion and become the best at his passion, I can do it too. All of us have a calling deep within us and I feel like Ive been excuseing myself from my calling because Ive lived my life believing naysayers. Not any more! This week I am calling the local colleges auto mechanic school and applying for the ASE program. I aim to start next term but they may make me wait until the fall. I may not make a huge wad of money but I will be doing what I love and thats what matters. I have an aptitude for it, Ive had a lot of "training" on my own car and with my dad too. Im not going to let being a girl push me into a carreer I don't like anymore! It will be hard and I know Im going to have a lot of proving myself to do but Im going to be doing it for me this time!
Sorry for the rambling post...I just had to get my thoughts out there. Anyone else finaly break the bonds of excuses and follow a dream?

[pomtzu]

I say "go for it!" Who says a mechanic has to be a man??? Danica Patrick is a race car driver - a woman in a man's sport. I don't feel there are that many gender boundaries anymore. Women are doctors - practically unheard of at one time. They are plumbers, electricians, linemen(women), tractor trailer drivers, etc, etc. More and more men are nurses, stay at home Dads, etc, etc.

You can be whatever you want to be. Follow your heart, and you will succeed!
Good luck.......

[Catty1]

Trying to...fate has done me a favour and made a lot of regular jobs ones I have had to quit, or have been fired from. :-(

While I am working with a career/life coach (mostly on the career stuff), I have a couple of entreprenueurial ideas...the main one being doing presentations combined with music performance (oh, yeah, they're called CONCERTS! LOL). Am closer to doing it than I have ever been.

Aside from the money crap...as in having little income...I like having my own schedule.


Hoping for temporary disability-type income until I get a bit healthier.

It is hard to break the rules...but I have a safe place to try out the show - the church I hang out at. Just gotta DO it and not think about it so much!

So I hear ya.

[k9krazee]

Awesome, good luck!

[Karen]

Actually, you will make good money as a mechanic, and have an easier time getting a job BECAUSE you are female, and people want to be safe from discrimination lawsuits. It may not always be easy, but go for it, and you'll be happier, and like I said, can make good money if you are a good mechanic.

A friend of mine is a female truck driver, and while she got a little hassling going through school, most of the surprise she faces when people see her step out of an 18-wheeler turns to admiration, if there's any reaction at all, saying YOU drove THAT?

[Alysser]

Fyrewolf, go for what you want, DO WHAT makes YOU happy. I was told I couldn't be a Marine biologist because they don't make any money, because I'm not smart enough, because I'm a women, and a bunch of other dumb excuses. There was a time when I believed them, but now I refuse to listen to those anymore. There's no reason for someone NOT to be able to do something they have always wanted to do. Good job for NOT giving up! Much much luck to you in your career and your passion.

My parents have always supported my ideals of becoming a Marine Scientist, but I have been told my so many people I can't do it. I have lost count. My aunt once said I wasn't smart enough to do this. I've been told science is a "man's job" by my godmother's friend. What kind of BS is that? Why is it a "man's job"? I was told by teachers and friends I don't make any money doing it? I believed these things for a long time. I was so lost about what I wanted with my life. I would never stand for an office job.. that's not me. It was either an astronaut or Marine biologist for me. I really really can't be a astronaut, because physically, I am not healthy enough. I have a heart condition and wouldn't be allowed in space by NASA or even the Russians and they are much more leneant about it then NASA! So, I'll have to settle for Marine Biology. Not that that's a bad thing! It just means, since I physcially can't go out into space, I was destined for Marine Biology I guess! Never again will I let ANYONE deter my dreams.

[Suki Wingy]

Hooray! Go for it, I know a woman who is a mechanic.

[Karen]

I will also add that, being female, your hands are likely smaller than a man's hands, and more able to get into some places they cannot! As "assistant mechanic #3" - a.k.a. nosy kid #3 in the family, I was often asked to use my skinny fingers to hold or grab something Dad's hands couldn't get!

[RICHARD]

Why bother learning to be a car mechanic?

If you just want to be a mechanic? Forget about it.

Get you OWN SHOP.

----------

I have been literally enthralled with the Paralympics.

Blind people skiing downhill at 50 mph?
Amputees playing hockey, skiing in the biathlon?

So, a drummer with no arms/hands?

Sometime the worst handicap is the space between a person's ears.


ROCK ON!

[DJFyrewolf36]

Thanks everyone!!!

[Laura's Babies]

I wanted to add that I would take my car to a female mechanic faster than I would a male mechanic and I wouldn't feel like I had to worry about being taken advantage of or being talked down to because I am FEMALE! Again I say "GO FOR IT!".....

[Marigold2]

I worked in my dad's body shop in high school (my hands were often dirtier then the boys) and I worked in my aunt's detailing shop as an adult.
It's hard work, it smells, hard on the back, your hands get cut all the time, in the winter it's cold in the summer it's hot BUT I enjoyed it as well.
It's not for the old, too hard on the body, it's a young person job. Perhaps some day you will open your own shop and have an all female crew. Women would run to you, would as someone else said trust you more. So go for it. Try it and see how it goes. If you don't like it you can perhaps work in the parts department, that is a bit easier.

[DJFyrewolf36]

I realized that the dirtier, more physically exhausted and somewhat brused after a shift I was the happier I was. I worked a lot of construction jobs and a lot of cushy jobs and I felt most at home physically working in 100 degree heat than sitting on my arse in a climate controlled office. I think its because with harder work, co workers have a lot less time to
b!tch lol.
Idle hands bore me to death!

[pomtzu]

Good for you! I think a lot of young people should take lessons from you. Too many think that the easier the job, the better they like it, and also that the world owes them! I pity the day for them, when reality comes and bites them in the butt..........