In interviews, I find this this to be the second most awkward question I’ve been asked, right behind “what are your strengths?”.  Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?  That’s an interesting question because in the case of an interview, the answer you want to give is I want to be working for you, that’s why I’m here, right?  But that isn’t what people want to hear.  They want to hear grandiose plans for growth and success, and unfortunately, those don’t come without considerable planning.  Simply wishing for future growth and success doesn’t work.

I had that happen recently in an interview I had and I honestly didn’t know how to answer.  I mean, saying something like I see myself retired in five years probably wasn’t what they wanted to hear.  I think when people hear the word “retired” they think of relaxing, getting older, tired, or any number of things, but certainly productive isn’t one of them.  For me, however, it means options.  Options to try or pursue other things during the day when I would normally be teaching.  The idea of sitting on my laurels or in a rocking chair is not the least bit appealing to me, but pursuing other avenues of learning and doing is very appealing.

Just saying I want to go back to school or travel isn’t going to cut it.  Actually making plans to make it happen will.  My problem of course, for those of you who know me, is the whole hummingbird personality.  I want to do a little of this and a little of that and actually making a decision is so hard!  There is so much to see and do in this lifetime!  And then there’s the whole ageism thing.  I want to continue working at something, but I’m learning that some people don’t take you as seriously if you’re older.  Obviously being “current” is more important than having lived through things younger people can only read about.  It’s why I don’t have to always google stuff – I was there.

You know how people say that your high school or college years are the best times of your life?  Well, although they were good, I have to say that my life right now gets better all the time.  I’m finally at a time where I have a clue as to what I’m doing (most of the time : ),  I’ve had a great career, my family is grown, I have a grandchild, I’m in a wonderful, long relationship with my husband and I’m in a pretty comfortable place financially.  I can either sit back and say I’m satisfied or I can continue to strive and see if things get even better.  Seriously, the older I get, the better the adventures become!

This is one of the things I see seriously lacking in the education of our students and that is how to plan.  They want material things and things to happen and they want it now.  Immediate satisfaction has taken over for what used to be waiting, planning and working, and because of that, we end up with a lot of young people disappointed and disenchanted with life because things just didn’t fall into place like they think they should have.  So, they received a college education and now they should just get that dream job making as much as their parents?  They fail to remember that the style they may have been accustomed to living took their parents many years to achieve, climbing up one rung at a time.  My first full time teaching job in 1994 paid me @$16,000 a year and I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  Much less than what I’m earning now, but I’ve worked a long time and garnered more education to get where I am.  It will come, with work and planning, but it may not come right away.  We’re not teaching that to our young people.

There’s an appreciation and sense of pride that comes with planning and achieving, to say that I worked hard over a long time to get where I am.  The struggles are necessary for all of us to prove that we can do what we set out to achieve, no matter the difficulties.  It sets us up for success the next time we try something because we have more tools in our toolbox to pull from.  Even those things we can’t anticipate, things that cause set-backs or cause us to maybe veer off track are learning experiences.  We must teach this to our children and young people if we want them to be successful adults.  Nothing gets handed to us and life is not fair.  Teaching them to deal with these truths is a gift we should be giving them.

So, where do I see myself in five years?  The vision is in place, the research is being done and the logistics are being worked out.  Let’s see what happens….