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Friday, April 7, 2017

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the Week

Spinach Frittata


Friday
  • leftover Cabbage Patch soup
  • orange wedges
  • toast
Saturday
husband cooks
  • egg, rice and cheese casserole
  • cooked carrots
  • cooked pumpkin
Sunday
husband cooks
  • black bean tacos in home-fried shells, with
  • cheddar cheese, canned tomatoes, and chopped cabbage
  • carrot sticks
Monday
  • spinach frittata topped with canned tomatoes and mozzarella
  • brown rice
  • orange wedges
Tuesday
  • French toast, using some sourdough French that was given to us, and I've kept in the freezer
  • topped with cream cheese, pineapple chunks, banana slices, orange segments, vanilla-rhubarb jam -- really yummy! 
Wednesday
  • beef and black bean burritos (I had a cooked hamburger patty in the freezer, so I crumbled it up into the beans, onions, and canned tomatoes)
  • orange segments
Thursday
  • spinach frittata
  • pasta with canned tomatoes
  • jam thumbprint cookies, using some frozen dough, these baked while I assembled the frittata
What a week. Time is going by so quickly I can barely keep up. I am sure that you know the kind of week that I am talking about, right? But we always manage to get through everything.

So, thank you again for participating in my survey/poll. Do you want to know what your fellow readers, here, think? Here are the results. Over 50 people responded. The program only allowed me to see answers to the first 25 on Wednesday, and for the 18-20 who responded on Thursday. On Wednesday I received notification that my poll was full, and an additional 20 had responded or attempted to respond, without recording their votes. The message also said that I could pay a fee to get the results that went above 25. No thanks. My instructor said she'd accept as few as 12 participants. I archived the total from Wednesday, so I could allow those who wanted to participate a chance on Thursday.

Late last night, I tallied both days of polling, and he's the percentage breakdown.

What age do you think is too old to begin a new career?
  • 0% said 40-50 years old
  • 15% said 50-60 years old
  • 85% said you're never too old to embark on a new career
What is more important in choosing a career?
  • 16.5% said earning potential
  • 65% said personal fulfillment
  • 18.5% said service to others
How many different career paths have you taken?
  • 25% said one
  • 55% said two or three
  • 20% said four or more
I thought the results were pretty interesting, myself. Not one of us thought that 40-50 is too old to change direction in a career. Obviously, at 45 years old it would be considerably more difficult to suddenly chose to become a surgeon. But many people have made significant career swings in their later years.

A few of us have just had one career path. That surprises me, as I have always been all over the place. Someone mentioned in the comments that perhaps career path needed definition. For instance, I worked in several fast food places between the age of 16 and 19. Does that mean that fast food was a career path of mine? I wouldn't consider it one, as I wasn't supporting myself at the time. However, in my early 20s, I was a restaurant manager for a year and a half. While I never set out for a career in restaurant management, this was a direction my employment took, to pay the bills and support myself. And I consider that time to be very valuable in learning how to manage businesses and employees. A couple of years after that job, I found myself in a management role again, this time in a department store. I managed the home division of a So. Cal. department store. My prior work in the restaurant was very beneficial in this new job. 

I was most happy to see that an overwhelming amount of us feel that no age is too old to start a new career. And I hope this goes for many of life's major pursuits, that we're never too old (with a couple of exceptions, like having kids, eventually we age out of that one).

Some of us feel that service to others is most important in choosing a career. That's a wonderful thing to know about this group. Many of us think personal fulfillment is most important. And a few of us think earning potential is most important. 

What I feel about these numbers is they are a snapshot of how each of felt when we clicked the buttons. In addition, they reflect our stages in life, our current living situations, and the struggles we've each endured. We're all on a journey, and likely some of our answers will change in a few years. Some of our answers would have been vastly different if we had been asked 20 years ago. My 30 year old self might have thought 45 years old would be too old to change direction and start a new career. My 25 year old self might have thought earning potential was most important.

Anyway, a lot of thoughts in my head about this. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing me with your thoughts. I am in the process of crystallizing my ideas of what my next step will be. I am getting an ever closer mental picture.

Have a great weekend!

7 comments:

  1. Hi, Lili--

    Sounded like a very successful assignment and useful results.

    I agree that we probably all see the possibilities a little differently, depending on where we are in our life's journey.

    I wish you every blessing as you continue to pursue yours. Sara :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I liked reading your thoughts about the survey. I too am surprised there were an equal or more respondents who had only one career as opposed to four or more. I, too, had many different jobs, and could never seem satisfied with a single major while in college, fluctuating from art/fashion design to math, which were always my two favorite subjects, but settled on food/nutrition. I knew that major was a mistake in my senior year, but decided to just get a degree and go back later. I envy those that know from an early age what they want to be when they grow up.

    Today, I am just happy living each day according to what fascinates me, and work on things when an idea strikes me. It isn't easy to give myself permission to be a slacker, since in our consumer, materialistic world, the message is more money or be of service to others. Personal fulfillment may seem selfish.

    YHF

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm chuckling about YHF's comment above, since I recently turned 50 and still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up! Actually, that's not really true. The only thing I've ever really wanted to be was happy.

    Anyhow, I just wanted to add to the conversation that I think this society puts WAY too much emphasis on defining people by their careers. I've had enough "dream jobs" to know that even in the best of situations, doing the most fulfilling kind of work one can imagine, work is still work. That isn't to say that it's "bad" - but it's definitely fraught with frustrations, challenges, and days when you'd just plain rather stay in bed!

    I'm not entirely sure what my point is, but I do think that we get ourselves into trouble when we try to define people (ourselves or others) by our careers... by "what we do" - because we all "do" many, many things. And ultimately, we are all sooo much more than a job title.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How often does AARP send you a membership card??? ;) I got my first when I was 49.

      Delete
    2. EcoCatLady, thank you for your comment. I agree that bottomline, being happy is what matters.

      Furthermore, the economic system which we live in defines the value of what we do. Even though we think it should be a fair system, it is highly partial to those who have something, or can do something, that others want. If we don't make ourselves "marketable" to the rest of the people in the system, then we will not have an easy time surviving. For me, thinking this way has not been easy.

      Have a great weekend!!

      YHF

      Delete
  4. Fun survey results. Maybe I should clarify--I think of my pre-bachelor's degree jobs as just that--jobs--and my professional job which requires an education as a career. The former were means to an end (although I enjoyed them--mostly food service jobs), i.e. paying the bills to get me through school. The latter also pays the bills but I get a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment with it that I'm not sure I would have flipping burgers. So when I answered "one" for career paths, that's what I was thinking. :)

    Cat lady has good comments about not defining ourselves solely by our work. I have found that it's easy to feel badly about myself for not working full-time in my "career", but ... needs change and life changes and sometimes we have to re-think our assumptions about life.

    Happy weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I defined my careers as jobs after I got out of school like Kris. Did you get to design the questions, Lili? As I remember, this class is more for a presentation that for learning how to ask survey questions.

    I think none of us want to be identified as just the job we have, but there is still great emphasis in our society placed on one's job and the status and earning potential it has. It's hard for me sometimes to not buy into those values for myself, but it is getting easier and easier the older I get.

    ReplyDelete

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