"A Foot in the Door" or "Could the World Really be MY Oyster?"

An excerpt from an email sent to a very good friend.

"I am considering disregarding your well intended advice about being happy with my cubicle job. We had an open house yesterday with about 200 clients in attendance. I got to talking with the recruiting director from our corporate office about how I ended up in the Project Coordinator position. I told him that I had originally applied for a Field Tech position but ended up not being able to interview for it.

[Tangent: I’ve thought about this whole field work thing a lot. And being in the field is what made me fall in love with geology in the first place, well that and the cute menJ All joking aside though, I kind of love being in a male dominated (not for much longer) industry. The feminist in me loves doing, or attempting to do, things that women would not typically be considered for. ]

So I’m talking with this man about how despite what all of the guys have told me, I really do have a hankering for field work. I say something along the lines of “I know I can do well in an office culture, I’m charming and smart at the politics game, but I don’t want to end up stuck in the cubicle lifestyle and never get a chance to be on site and getting my hands dirty. Having an office job will be great when I’m 27-30, but I feel like now is the ideal time to have a field job.” He asked if I have a geology degree. Told me he is hiring geologists left and right and would prefer to recruit internally. Gives me his business card. Talks about how I could be making $70,000/yr. The conversation moves on, and a few minutes later he turns to me and says “I can see the wheels turning, I’m serious, give me a call, send me your resume.”

Here’s the thing man. I think I want it. I want to know if I really can hack it doing shitty, dirty, hot/cold work. I want to see if I can hack it being (likely) the only woman on site. Getting a geology degree was a big challenge, and I want another challenge. Part of what depresses me about my loans is that I feel like they can pigeonhole me into becoming obsessed with security…that’s not quite right…obsessed with playing it safe maybe, sticking with something that I like, even when there may be something I will like more out there.

A brief comment on I__: The thing about I__ and his interactions with women and me, is that they aren’t like any other man that I’ve ever known. I really believe that even if I was gone for 230 days out of the year for a year or two that it might make our relationship better. And after that time, I would be debt free and we would finally be on more equal financial footing. "

Maybe its true that when it rains it pours, or perhaps it is more true that we make our own luck. Either way, I'v always liked jumping off of cliffs...

Peace out.
Pinky