Career Shift: No More Wading Around
Changing course in midstream
August 17, 2008
By Barbara Willig
I quit a comfortable job as a computer programmer to pursue a new career in environmental studies.
-
Email This Post
Print this article!
Digg
del.icio.us
Mahalo
StumbleUpon
YahooMyWeb
I’m standing knee-deep in murky, 40-degree water, fistfuls of mud and stream debris oozing between my fingers. Something red and slippery squiggles across my wedding ring. I quickly grab the critter and put it in a bucket with others about to bite the dust in the name of environmental awareness.
It’s a breezy, slightly overcast Saturday morning here on Zekiah Swamp, some 70 miles south of my home near Baltimore. Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, took cover in this part of southern Maryland while trying to escape into Virginia. I, on the other hand, have come willingly.
While doing this type of volunteer work — collecting aquatic invertebrates to determine the health of the streams in which they live — I have the chance for contemplation. One thought that occasionally comes to mind is, “What the heck am I doing here?”
I sometimes ask myself the same question as I sit in college classrooms alongside students that weren’t even born when I graduated the first time around. Not only have I ramped up my volunteer efforts, but I’ve also quit a comfortable job as a computer programmer to pursue a new career in environmental studies.
So what am I doing here in midstream? For one answer, I don’t have to look far: Just downstream are my two middle-school-age daughters, one on the shore with a pencil and clipboard in her hands and the other knee-deep in water just like me. They seem to be having fun and I think my interest in environmental studies could help ensure a brighter future for them and their generation.
My other reason for abandoning a solid career to start all over again might require a little more explanation.
A few years ago, I realized I was bored with my work. Many of my friends and co-workers in their 30s and 40s felt the same way, but most of us were “trapped” by our lifestyles and couldn’t afford to start over financially. “Maybe someday,” we said.
Then something happened. My 63-year-old mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died less than four months later. I knew it was time for me to get moving.
A lifelong outdoors enthusiast, I had once considered marine biology as a profession but was intimidated by all the science classes required. A quarter-century later — older and a little braver, I guess — I enrolled in The Community College of Baltimore County and started taking chemistry and physics courses at night while still working full time.
I really didn’t know what to expect, except that my family’s life would be in total upheaval — schedules juggled, nerves often on edge, free time at a premium. The calendar hanging in our kitchen was filled with pencil marks, practically every hour accounted for.
But we made the best of it. My husband and daughters understood my need to spend weekends poring over textbooks and cramming for exams instead of playing or doing chores. My older daughter was studying some of the same material in school, so we helped each other with homework.
It was two years later — fall 2007 — that I really took the plunge: I returned full-time to Towson University, the same institution from which I received a bachelor’s degree more than 20 years earlier. Tuition and schoolbooks cost a lot more than I remembered, but at least we had just paid off our mortgage.
Still, the loss of my income and health benefits has meant a lot of belt-tightening. But my family knows that this situation is temporary, and we fully expect that the end will justify the means — if not financially then at least with an improved quality of life for us all.
To fuel my new interests, and to help round out my new resume, I have also begun to volunteer with the Stream Waders program sponsored by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR). It’s a great activity if you’re willing to get a little wet each March and April (which is before the critters get really active).
Certain bugs are good indicators of stream health, so trained volunteers —184 of them this spring — are dispersed around the state to gather samples that are then analyzed in a laboratory.
Dan Boward, DNR program manager, says roughly 75 percent of all Stream Waders volunteers go through the program once and then move on. But not only have I been participating for three years now, but I’ve also gotten my whole family involved.
That’s how the four of us found ourselves in southern Maryland on a Saturday morning in spring, driving past Booth Place toward Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Road, searching for streams to sample. We all put on hip waders and galoshes and scooped up bugs, tadpoles and fish.
It was a terrific way to spend time together outdoors, even taking into account the times I got splashed with slimy water or hit on the head by the handle of the net my daughters were using. I think we’ve found a family activity to enjoy for years to come, and as a bonus the girls earn community service hours toward graduation.
Because of this experience with Stream Waders, I have shifted my concentration from marine biology to stream ecology. I guess as long as water is involved I’m happy.
The support of friends and family members continues to be amazing. I send former co-workers e-mail updates after each semester, and they respond with admiration and occasionally a little envy. And my daughters are always willing to listen to my oral presentations or quiz me before exams.
Needless to say, I’m delighted with the career decision I’ve made. It was when I finally realized that it is essential to enjoy your work that I got the nerve to jump.
That’s why I’m standing here in frigid water, my fingers nearly numb as I pick through fistfuls of muck. With my family around me, I can think of no better place to be.
Stream Waders
For more information about the Maryland Stream Waders Volunteer Monitoring Program, or to see the results of stream surveys in your part of the state, go online to www.dnr.state.md.us/streams/mbss/mbss_volun.html. Since participation is limited, Maryland DNR’s Dan Boward also recommends exploring volunteer opportunities with the Isaak Walton League of America’s Save Our Streams program (www.iwla.org) or the Audubon Naturalist Society of the Central Atlantic States (www.audubonnaturalist.org).
Tips If You’re Thinking of Changing Careers
- Go to your favorite Internet search engine (such as Google) and look for relevant articles, programs and organizations. You’ll likely find websites listing additional resources, career opportunities, volunteer activities and maybe even potential internships.
- Once you’ve assessed which new career you would like to pursue, don’t be shy about contacting someone in that field, whether it’s a friend or the friend of a friend. Their advice could help you prepare and get your foot in the door.
- If additional education is involved, keep an ongoing dialogue with professors and faculty advisers in your area of study. Also inquire about campus-based career resources available to students.
- Career counselors or other career development professionals are available to lend assistance. The National Career Development Association (www.ncda.org) can help sort out unscrupulous “job coaches” and direct you to qualified counselors.
- Attend career expos sponsored by such groups as Women for Hire (www.womenforhire.com). Many are free and may also provide information about support groups available at women’s career centers or adult continuing education centers.
Gingerbread - Sweet and Spicy Heaven
Easing Down I-95
Online Shopping Takes Off
Overcoming Holiday Overload
Tilghman’s Winter Tranquility
Petters, Ponzi & The Scheme Scene
Cool To Clip!
For Baby Boomer Women, Social Networking is Essential
The Mossy Greensward
Holiday Cheer
Allergy-Free Season’s Eatings