I am Not a Secretary

When I was in high school taking all sorts of career aptitude and personality tests to help me figure out what to do with my life, every assessment I took recommended that I become a secretary. If you're familiar with those tests, you know that they don't usually recommend just one career, so there were a lot of other things on the lists as well, but secretary was the one that always caught my eye.

(One test recommended that I become a lumberjack. I haven't entirely ruled that out).

Being a secretary seemed to fit. In junior high I spent two years as an assistant to one of my teachers. I did the same thing in high school (I may not have been called "secretary," but that's pretty much what I was). I was the secretary for my high school's dance team. Then after college, I spent some time as a receptionist at a dairy (i.e. secretary), and then I was hired at a special ed. school as... a secretary. I started off as the hourly secretary (the one that gets paid less and works part-time), but then I applied for a contract secretarial position and, out of 26 applicants, got the job as Principal's secretary. One of my first callings in my current ward was Young Women secretary. Then a few years later, I was called to be the Stake Relief Society secretary.

When I was figuring out what to do for college, I was originally planning on going to Westminster College, but even with scholarships, that would have landed me pretty heavily in debt. Since I was obviously going to grow up to be a secretary (and because of better scholarships), I decided to go to LDS Business College instead.

Business college!

I get a chuckle out of that now. What on earth was I doing at a business college? It seems like such a wrong place for me, and yet, it was the right choice.

When I was applying for school last summer, I kept looking at my transcript and thinking, "I should be getting a business degree!" because I'm well on my way. But my desire for a business degree is less than zero.

When I introduced myself to my first class at BYU-Idaho, I said something along the lines of, "Hello, class! I'm Brittany. I graduated from LDS Business College where I studied accounting, so naturally, I am now earning my BS in Marriage & Family Studies." It was supposed to be funny, you see, because accounting does not naturally lead into MFS. Haha. I had obviously done a 180 in my schooling.

Except I learned (from that class) that I didn't!

As I looked into possible careers for a person with a BS in MFS (and a CFLE - Certified Family Life Educator, which I will likely be in the end) I contacted a family-related non-profit organization to inquire about their staffing. I asked them about their education requirements and how they operate. The office manager said things like, "We need people with degrees to do research, we need people with presentation skills to teach, and everyone needs office skills." The conversation was much more detailed than that, but the key was: office skills.

In the field of MFS, many people set out to start their own organizations or programs. They get passionate about a topic, pornography prevention, for example, and they create their own doors by developing curricula and starting their own organizations or programs.  This endeavor is obviously enhanced when the people involved have some type of business experience, so wow! Maybe there's a greater reason than I've ever understood for making the choice to go to business school (and guess whose husband has a business degree? MINE!)

At this point, I don't know what I'm going to do with my degree. I haven't ruled out grad school (I'm trying to keep my grades up so I will be a worthy candidate should I choose that route), but I will say that I have no desire to be a marriage counselor like most of the other people in my program. I want to work in prevention, not intervention, and even though counseling can be a preventative measure for many things, most married couples have problems for seven years before they seek help, so when they go to counseling, they are at a point of needing intervention. I want to work with people before that and provide education and skills that can help marriages and families avoid casualties later down the road. There is very little money in prevention, and my path can change at any time, which is why, for the time being, I'll say that I don't know what I'm going to do with my degree. BUT in looking at possibilities for the future, I have found it interesting that my secretarial skills and business education are likely to be needed.

Right now I'm not a secretary, but having been one in my past has definitely prepared me for new experiences, both career-wise and in my church callings. If I am accomplishing anything good as the Primary president in my ward, it is because I was a secretary first. I think the same can be said for whatever my future brings.