Apocraphylbiped

(not written by me but saved because I liked it)

I have the urge to butt in on the 'drifting along' question. It's something I've been doing all my life. I've had a decade of drifting along between my early twenties and now, and I can honestly say that I have no idea how I ended up where I am and have been.

After school I had no idea what I should do with my life, apart from getting a degree perhaps. Unfortunately I couldn't quite decide on what degree, so I drifted around at uni for a couple of years before I dropped out. I went off to work as an au-pair for a bit, and then continued as a nanny for a decade, simply because I could easily get work, and because it was quite a nice job.

At some point I went back to uni, because I figured I couldn't look after kids forever. I pretty much drew my choice of degree out of a hat, and ended up on a CompSci course without knowing anything about computers at all. I think I learned how to switch one on a couple of month before I started my degree. Have I mentioned that I am a technophobe when it comes down to it?

After I finished my degree I didn't even bother filling out job applications, assuming (rightly so) that I am pretty much non-employable with a CV that had slacker spelled all over it. Oddly enough, I am now working in a computing job, solely because my supervisor recommended me to someone at the university where I studied. My boss has a soft spot for hopeless cases. If that hadn't happened , I probably would have gone for another nanny job and sooner or later embarked on a Masters in a completely different field.

Now I am in a job where I feel like a bit of an impostor (it's proper tech stuff, how did that happen and aren't there some nerds who are supposed to do this stuff?), but being the quintessential drifter, I drift along with it quite happily and actually enjoy my job (when I'm not worrying about being an impostor with a huge void of knowledge).

At the back of my mind I'm already wondering what I will be doing in ten years. I always wanted to be a librarian, just not enough to actually do anything about it. Or perhaps a therapist, I can see myself dispensing valuable advice like "I'm bored of your story now, get over yourself and please pay the receptionist on your way out".

So, I guess what I'm saying is once a drifter, always a drifter. But it does have its advantages. You get a some nice surprises, you discover that you can do things that you thought were alien to you and when serendipity comes your way, just grab it. It works. And you never have the disappointment of having worked your butt of for your dream career to then find out that you hate it. If things are not great, you can move on and find something better. Always.

edit: spelling