I don't want to grow up!

When I was little, I took tap-dancing classes. Our recital performance one year was to "I won't grow up" from the musical Peter Pan. We had these ridiculous pink and white sequined costumes that had nothing to do with the song:

Don't I look thrilled?

Anyhow, whenever life is getting me down and adulting seems too hard, I think back to that song.

Last week, I took two days off work in order to attend a church leadership conference here in Cincinnati. It was such an awesome experience getting to learn more about God, and I left the conference feeling spiritually renewed and ready to take on the world! My weekend was filled with family and friends and beautiful weather, and I felt so prepared to come back to work after being poured into during these experiences.

I knew that things were going to be a little hectic today because that is simply what happens whenever you take time away from the office; it takes twice the amount of time you were gone in order to get caught up. I hadn't even been at my desk for 20 minutes before someone started saying that they needed something done ASAP.

Lately, it seems like no matter what I do at my job, it is never enough. I frequently come home crying in the evenings because I am so frustrated at the amount of work still left to do and the unrealistic expectation of when it all needs to be done. There is a huge amount of distrust among my team members, where no one believes that anyone else can help them, so we all stay on our own little islands. I never really pictured this career for myself in the first place, which makes it all the more difficult to stay with it. We are short-staffed, and the management really isn't helping the issue. There is very little transparency within the company about how issues are being resolved. I don't think it would be much better if I went to a different firm though.

I've thought about changing careers, but I don't even know where I would start looking. I never had a "dream job" when I was a kid. I mostly just picked a major because I thought it sounded good in theory. I've taken some career tests, but I don't really like the options they give me. What about you - how did you decide what career path you wanted to choose?

If only I could be like Peter Pan and never have to worry about growing up...