Climbing Corporate

Being in school was the worst. I never liked school, I was bad at math, I loathed gym class. I only liked the classes where I could be creative. I loved writing and I did not like reading, which does not make sense to a lot of people. As I grew older the more I loved writing and I grew to love reading. I loved drama class and looked forward to it all week.

The future was ahead of me after graduating high school. My dad had always pushed me to pursue big things in university as he feels that leaving school with a degree or diploma was really worth it. I tried just going to work and the jobs I had were awful as they were all in retail and I felt like I was at a dead end- going nowhere. It pushed me to pursue greater things. On a whim I applied to university and I got accepted, so off I went while working at a local theatre. I only really looked forward to three things and that was drama class, choir and going to home or work. I would sit in class waiting for it to be over, so I could go to work. I never went out with friends. Slowly, over time work became a priority for me while in university. I graduated with an okay GPA and I went to work. I went back to school and I went to pursue a job. I never thought I would be a career chaser. I just wanted a good job with good pay and good money and I got all of that from being a unit clerk at a hospital. It was hard to get my foot in the door with more than 365 applications. I got a phone call to be a front door screener during covid-19. Then, an opportunity came up for me to move a step up and get that unit clerk job that I went to school for. Sure enough I got a shift job at the hospital, I spent a year there and I loved the work I did, but I felt like my life was passing me by, I was never on vacation because I was working. Then another opportunity presented itself as an Administratove assistant supporting oncologists that was Monday to Friday with regular hours and I got that job. Now, ten months later another opportunity came up and it’s another step up for me. The title is executive assistant and the only thing left after that is manager.

Now, a few months ago I received an email from my company stating that I can now apply for manager positions if I wanted to. I was curious to exactly what a manager does and what sort of education they would need in order to qualify. Sure enough in the current offers that they had posted you need a degree relating to business or healthcare or similar field.

Does that mean they would consider my application? I actually have a shot at being a manager? I can be someone with power to change something that is broken? I would have power to make a difference and change the way things are done?

Now, it seems I can pursue a career-something I never thought would be possible in my wildest dreams. I could have all of that simply because I went to school and got a degree. All these years I thought my English degree was useless and I would make jokes “ I have a degree in reading”. When in reality it was better that I did some sort of degree. At the time it certainly was a joke because I hated the idea of becoming a teacher up until this year. My degree was actually worth pursuing because I can climb up the corporate ladder and I can achieve things greater than I thought, but the only reason I got my foot in the door was because of my extensive costumer service experience. However, I would not be able to pursue anything beyond the job I have now. Thank you English degree!

Everything happens for a reason.