Taking the Test

I am on my final chapter of my animal massage course. It's all about First Aide. I feel pretty confident, but I have yet to log in and take it. I'm too tired right now, my brain feels like cold oatmeal. So in the meantime I'm studying -- rereading and rechecking all the details I sometimes forget or overlook.

Once I pass this test, I must write a paper and take a week-long practical and then the first course is done. The next will be/should be more involved, but frankly I haven't been impressed with the rigor of this program. Maybe it's because I was a teacher for so many years or maybe it's because I paid so much money to take the course or maybe it's just me, but this course hasn't really prepared me for massaging dogs.

What's prepared me is my work at the pool where I get to actually work with dogs and apprentice with my boss who is, in my humble opinion, a great teacher. I wish I could have paid her the money I'm paying the school, but these are the hoops I must jump through in order to continue on in my new career.

It feels odd to call it a career. Teaching was a career, but I suppose at the beginning of it I didn't see it that way either. Twenty some odd years later, I can call it a career -- a profession even -- but I don't know if I'll have the same feeling with this new direction in my life. Maybe it's because I'm over 50 and I don't have a lot of role models in my life who have changed careers at this age. Or maybe it's because I'm really enjoying my new work and since it took me about five years to relax and enjoy my job as a teacher, I'm having a hard time believing that something so joyous can actually be a profession.

I'm rambling this morning -- another result of cold oatmeal brain -- but I guess the point is that I keep waiting for all of this to sink in. I am no longer a classroom teacher (with my summer's off, which is truly something I miss). I am a dog walker and K9 hydrotherapist -- well, not yet since I first have to finish the course -- but I'm on my way to being a hydrotherapist and every morning I still wake up and pinch myself. "Is this really my life?"

The cold oatmeal is warming up. I best go take my test!