I have always been a person who believes that things happen for a reason.  Everyone has a path set out for them and its their job to follow that path.  You can choose to ignore that path to varying degrees of success, but you will pay the consequences.  You can call it fate, or the will of God, or Allah Jehovah, what ever you personally believe in but I think it does exist.  I know I haven’t been the most devout Christian  around, but I believe in God and try to live my life to the best of my ability without violating my personal beliefs.

  When I lost my first job it was devastating for me at first.  Then I slowly realized that I had just barely missed being laid off several times over the years.  Something had always stopped it though.  At one point I was the lowest seniority employee at the company and had been moved to a temporary job.  The job lasted long enough for the company to start hiring again.  Eventually the job I had ran out but I was no longer low seniority and managed to find another job in the business.  Now this was no a “good” job under any circumstance.  It was a factory job, hard, hot and dirty and I had an associates degree.  I don’t want to say it was beneath me, but there weren’t any other people working at my level with a degree.  After about eight years we had got a new plant manager, and one of his assistants suggested me for a management career.  I had never applied I was content to just do my job and earn my paycheck.  Honestly i was scared to try anything new.  I spent five years in management before I was laid off.  The factory was in very bad shape and has gone steadily down hill.  I was one of the last employees offered a severance package and the last one offered full severance.  the factory is still operating but where once there were close to 500 employees. there are now less than 100.

  As bad as being laid off shook me, it was just the right time for it to happen.  Special government funding allowed me to go to college and earn a second degree in the healthcare field.   Still being off work was hard.  Even though my tuition was paid, my unemployment ran out and I was left to scrape by until I got a student loan.  Still cash was tight.  My cars motor also chose this time to go out making it tighter.  I was really nearing the end of my rope.  One day i was sitting in my car crying.  It had been a bad day at clinical and I had decided to drop out of school and try and find another factory job.  Everything seemed dark and then I heard a small voice in my mind.  ‘ You belong here,”  it said, ” and you will finish, and you will work in healthcare.”   I felt that my path was laid out and if I struggled against it, the path would only get worse.  I did manage to struggle through, but it wasn’t always easy.  When I graduated I planned on being a travel tech, working temporary assignments around the country.  Normally this pays much better than just getting a full time job at a hospital or clinic.  Over my summer semester, however i was offered a job at a local hospital.  I told them I would think about it but I really wanted to travel.  As time went by and I thought about it, it seemed that i was once again being led down a path.  I started to feel that this was where I belonged and I ended up taking the job.  I spent almost five years there.  Just a month ago I lost that job.  I stand at a  crossroads and the way is not clear.  I was offered a job that pays very well but it takes me away from the medical field.  Is this my destiny?  The job offer came at almost the exact time I lost my job.  Its tempting but is this my path?  I will be making over three times what i did in healthcare.  I’m scared and can’t decide what to do.  Locally the healthcare field is bloated and there are no opportunities in my occupation.  I haven’t found many travel jobs and I can’t afford to move.  Still I worry, I have never been one to quit if I don’t like a job, so my next decision may be for a very long term.  I feel like I lost my job for a reason.  There is a path i am meant to travel, I just can’t see it right now.