Happy Friday, readers! Today is May 17th 2024 and in 10 days I’ll be 26 years old. It feels a little scary knowing I’m about to be the same age a lot of my family started their own families at. A big part of that reason is I’ve been contemplating the following question for the last year: What is the difference between a job, a career, and a lifestyle?
A little about me…
If you didn’t read my previous blog (which is currently being relaunched to this one), here’s a few things to note about me: I am an artist, a wanderer, and I have a huge appreciation for people and the Earth. What some of you may not know as well about me, I have a special interest in medicine.
Planting a sage plant circa 2014 (photo credit: Nicole Weldon)
In high school, I ran my own apothecary from my bedroom. I made various kinds of teas, tinctures, and cleaning products using my own organically-grown herbs from the garden. I researched a lot about what plants could do.
That being said, I chose to pursue a different interest I had at the time: Foreign Language and International Outreach
(Holding some petrified wildflowers on island Ometepe in Nicaragua. Photo Credit: Kate Abraham)
I decided when I was 18 I wanted to be a traveling humanitarian. I manifested that part of my goal by traveling with an organization called CarpeMundi . Through CarpeMundi, I used my grant and scholarship money to spend a semester overseas in Nicaragua. I paid for my room and board by helping the local community with their chores. I did get some education on medicine while I was abroad, including a course on permaculture farming and what specific Nicarguan plants help with which ailments.
I thought I could travel and do all of this forever. I was researching things I could do overseas after I graduated from college. I put my nose to the grindstone studying until I burned myself out trying to get out there as fast as I could so I could save money for traveling.
Unfortunately, I graduated in the middle of a global pandemic.
The Covid-19 halted the plans of countless people on an international scale. I was part of that group. I graduated several months after the initial lockdown, and spent another 8 months trying to find a job. Eventually I got lucky and landed a minimum wage job at a thrift store.
(I thrifted this shirt at the store I worked at during the time. May 2021)
Eventually, I saved up enough money at this thrift store job to get my very own Apartment on the Oregon Coast!
(Dismal Nitch, outside of Astoria, OR)
And then I found love…
(Seth, with my deceased cat, Peaches. 2022)
I decided that maybe I’ll save the rest of my travels for leisure using my PTO at a more consistent 9-5 pace.
(Found family at my own family’s home, Christmas Day 2023)
Seth and I have now been together for almost 2 and a half years. I am part of his cousin’s wedding photos and am going on a family vacation with them over the summer. I have started to become embraced and welcomed in this domestic lifestyle with a life partner, and I don’t want to miss a thing.
Thankfully, I now work in Pharmacy.
It hasn’t been easy, but I’m learning so much working in the post-covid healthcare field. I’m learning so much about pharmacology, empathy, communication, and cooperation. With the amount of growth and also room for improvement I currently have, I decided on my next step: I enrolled in an online Pharmacy Technician Class.
Right now, I’m just a pharmacy clerk. But down the line, I will be learning so much more. Eventually, I want to advance my current role to become a pharmacy technician. I’m hoping through lots of reading and practicum hours working as a clerk, I’ll be one of the warmest humanitarian pharmacy technicians on the Oregon Coast.
Thank you for reading my long winded post about career choices. Now i’ll ask: What steps did you have to go through to find where you want to be in life?
Syd Weldon 
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