>Taking stock

>I suppose after getting married I am taking stock of my life, and our life together and what we want. We’re thinking about where we want to be in a career sense and in a geographic sense.

My family moved often when I was growing up. My sister is a military wife and will swap coasts in January. My parents are here with us in Alabama, but they have expressed a desire to go elsewhere in a couple years.

So… I’m taking stock. Thinking about what is best for us financially. Thinking about what I want to do, and what he wants to do, and about what we want to accomplish as a married couple. About where we should be. And about what I like.

• Animals. I have a big thing for animals, especially dogs, and especially retrievers like my lovable Mango. I know most of the breeds by heart and I’ve often wondered what sort of jobs I could get working with animals in a less-obvious way. As a child I wanted to be a veterinarian.
• Words. This one is more obvious. I majored in journalism and minored in creative writing. I’ve had a blog since 2004 on Livejournal. I have worked as a copy editor. I suppose you could say reading goes hand-in-hand with words. I’m a big reader.
• The Web. I have a genuine interest in the Web beyond my job description as a Web editor. I was the fourth person to join facebook at my alma mater. I Google everything. But a lot of people enjoy the Web and want to know how it works. So where do I fit in?
• Planning. I like planning things. I really, truly enjoyed planning my wedding. I think I could plan larger events. I’m detail-oriented and I think I could work well with vendors, clients, etc.
• Travel. I really enjoy traveling. Brian and I have a lot of favorite places. I would love to travel and not be chained to a desk all time time. Or to have a job where you get the summer off!
• Beauty. I am a makeup maven. There are certain brands I really like and the notion of playing with cosmetics all day, writing about them, etc. is exciting to me. You could also put shoes and handbags in this category. (c;
• The beach. I love the beach and coastal decor. This one is pretty obvious as I got married on the beach and all, but seriously! I love the beach. having a job that would allow be to travel there or write about the beach would be heavenly.
• Greek Life. I’m a sorority alum (Gamma Phi Beta, if you haven’t figured that out by now, ha.) and I know a lot about sorority and fraternity history and lots of neat facts. My cousin works in student affairs and he has told me that he thinks working in Greek Life might be my second calling. But of course that requires graduate school. Bleh.

While I know that I would enjoy a teaching career, or a job in university Greek Life (or even for my sorority itself), or working with animals, I think what I’m most interested in doing is continuing down my current career path. What I’m tired of is “the news” — the hard, breaking, continuous news that I work with on a daily basis. It’s too unpredictable and depressing for me.

But I do love content and the Web. So I’m thinking that my career goal will be to work at an e-commerce or lifestyles-focused Web site. Sites like Amazon, Google, Zappos, eBay and several other interactive marketing and media companies are what excite me as hopeful, possible, eventual employers. (A girl can dream, right?) I want to continue learning the marketing, design and tech sides of the Web and align those skills with my content skills. I think the process of getting where I want to be will take a while, but I can definitely see it happening if I put my mind to it.