Dear Diary,

More than 12 months ago I decided to start trying to love my life and to start learning to love myself.  A major part of my new self-loving mentality is that I am starting to make positive changes in my life; this includes trying to eliminate everything in my life that makes me unhappy.  At the beginning of 2011 I decided that I will try to make positive changes with my family, in my relationship and in my career. After working in the financial services industry for over a decade I decided that my real passion is (and has always been) writing.

I definitely want to pursue a career in writing, but I don’t want to throw away my twelve years of experience in the personal finance industry.  I would love to be an author and I am currently writing my first book, however writing an unpublished book doesn’t pay the bills. I honestly still love working in personal finance, I just don’t totally love working in retail banking anymore. I want to combine my financial experience with my love of writing. In order to achieve my personal goal of combining my experience with my passion I decided to pursue a career in corporate communications.

I had no idea how to make the career change  from retail banking to corporate communications so I just started applying for jobs. Unfortunately the response from potential employers was not as enthusiastic as I hoped it would be. Many potential employers appreciate the fact I have many years of retail banking experience, but they feel that I am under experienced in the writing and communications aspects of the job qualifications.  Of course I feel that this is not true because I have been writing for almost as long as I have been working in the personal finance industry, but employers love to see diplomas.

After being declined for two corporate communications jobs I decided to stop applying for my dream job and I decided to start researching exactly what skills and education requirements are needed for jobs in corporate communications. Before I apply for another job in corporate communications I will make sure that I have the experience, the skills, and the education to get hired. So to sum up my long story, I recently enrolled in the journalism program at a local university.

Going back to school while working a full time job at the bank and working a part time job as a freelance writer is definitely a challenge.  However, this is what I have to do right now in my life in order to achieve my personal and career goals later in life.  Every morning that I am too tired to get out of bed and every night that I am awake and working past midnight I keep telling myself that this is only a temporary situation.  My life will be hectic for the next two years but in the end it will all be worth it to achieve my ultimate personal goal of becoming and author and my career goal of working in corporate communications.

Love Always,

Photo by qusur

Check out the other post in my “A Second Chance” series:

A Second Chance at Love

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