My 19 year old daughter Megan is also about to embark on a 5 week placement working in a marketing and PR company in Manchester where she will be put in charge of a client, managing their social media promotion. I am hugely impressed that she found this placement to occupy her over the long summer break rather than staying in bed all day in student mode! She has passed her second year exams and is poised to take on her final year with the dedication and enthusiasm that will see her excel! She has got a fantastic future ahead of her, I am so proud.
I remember doing my own work experience as a teenager with the whole world at my feet. I spent two weeks at the infant school I attended as a child. It was the easy choice for someone with no clue as to what she wanted to do. I walked around the playground, read stories, did arts and crafts activities and listened to readers.
I always did well at school. I'd get A's for most things (except art and PE!!) I didn't try very hard but with a photographic memory and a penchant for waffly penmanship, I found exams really easy. But I had no focus, no direction, no passion. So I drifted along with no idea as to what I wanted to do or be.
When I left school, after I'd turned down my university offer, I worked as a Laboratory Technician for Horlicks Beecham. I tested samples of product and raw materials in the QC department. Within a year I was pregnant. A welcome escape from my lab coat!
My son was a year old when I started work as an Advertising Rep designing and selling directory advertising for Thomson Local Directories. I enjoyed the creative side of the job but I despised the sales. So finding myself pregnant was an excuse to quit another unsatisfying job.
The job that I have done for the longest is that of a teaching assistant, working in my children's old school. My work experience went full circle! I took an under graduate specialist TA course with the OU and worked in a senior position taking classes and working with groups needing extra support. I wish that I had found my vocation. I wish it ticked the boxes and put me onto a path to completing a teaching degree, but I really didn't like being in front of a class. It terrified me!! So getting pregnant with Freddy marked the end of my involvement with the school.
I really hope my girls have a vision of what they want to do and pursue it. They really could achieve anything they wanted to in the workplace. They are smart, bright, friendly, confident and personable. I look forward to watching their futures unfurl at their feet, seeing them achieve all the things I never did. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret a thing that I have (or haven't) done in my life...but I really hope my girls have fulfilling careers and amazing lives before they make me a Grandma!