Hey,
I’m currently 29, about to be 30 in July, with 5 kids under 10. I work as a Software Engineer and have been working in this field within 5 years now. I want to switch careers to become an OBGYN specifically for high risk, due to my own personal experiences during all of my pregnancies. However, I only have an Associates, which is in Software Development and my previous college experiences wasn’t the best. I actually ended up getting dismissed from one university in 2011.
To begin, I started out my journey fresh out of highschool, literally that summer after high school graduation in 2010. I first majored in Industrial Design, yet after failing my art classes, and shadowing some people, I realized I didn’t want to continue. I then switched to Business Administration and bombed pretty badly which caused me to get dismissed in 2011.
I stayed out of school and life happened. I got married in 2013 and got pregnant the same year with my first daughter. I had no idea about the ups and downs of pregnancy and this was my first real experience with an OBGYN. Throughout the experience I grew a fascination with my body and how the baby grows from a little seedling to a baby. Along with this, I grew curious about my conditions that I developed through my pregnancy and how I was ill prepared. I wish I had have started this journey to a healthy pregnancy early.
With that said, I struggled trying to figure out what to do for a living and was working as a CNA while pregnant, but I had a passion to work in a hospital setting with mothers and babies. So I started thinking about going to nursing school, I never applied due to an incident while tending to a resident. I ended up quitting and decided to look into a non health care careers for my safety.
Fast forward a few months later, I’m flipping through my high-school yearbook one day and I see a picture of me under a S.T.E.M. scholar bulletin. On my bio I mentioned that I wanted to be a computer engineer or a video game developer. I then thought I found my calling. So I looked for schools that I could take online classes so I can be a stay at home mom when my daughter was born. Fast forward, I get accepted to a technical college in 2014 shortly before my daughter was born that June, but I struggled trying to make ends meet, having another baby in 2016, and having marriage issues.
I finally do graduate 3 years later in 2017 and land my first job as a developer in 2018. I soon quickly realize that this may not be the career for me. Yet I stick through it. I ended up divorcing my first husband the same year and lost that job shortly afterwards in 2019. I met my now husband months after I separated and got another job as as Software Engineer in another state. We move there and things were going well at first. Until after the pandemic, I got let go shortly after returning from my maternity leave, (my 3rd child). I stayed out of work for about a year, had another baby in 2021. Then got pregnant again late 2021 with my 5th and hopefully last child, due in August 2022. As of January 2022, I am back to working as a Software Engineer, but I still don’t feel fulfilled, or secure in this job.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but to me the way I am thinking is that it’s almost 5 years from graduating in Software Development and I don’t feel that I have progressed in this career. Nor am I satisfied, I am back to wanting to go back to school to get my BS in health services and then applying to Medical School. Yet, I’m afraid I may be too late though, because I struggled in school. What should I do?