Finding Her Way: a slice of life Simstory

Chapter 1:  This might work...

Don't think for a moment that Beth was completely content to drift through life without purpose.  Her friends were almost all high achievers, and she had always been impressed by and, perhaps, a bit envious of their accomplishments.  There were times when she thought she should simply pick an occupation and pursue it.  Deep inside, however, the young woman knew that plan would never make her happy, satisfied, or successful.

One beautiful Sunday morning in early Fall, Beth was feeling particularly restless and unhappy.  After moping around for a while, she decided to reach out to a friend.  She called Angie Reynolds, and the two of them agreed to meet at the Willow Cafe.

Beth explained her dilemma to her physician friend.  Angie couldn't relate directly to Beth's situation; she had known she wanted to be a doctor from childhood, but Beth knew she could trust Angie to give her loving, reasoned advice.

"I know I need to do something, but I can't think of what I want to do," Beth explained.  

Angie nodded. "Do you know what you don't want to do?"

Beth paused for a long moment.  "I really don't see myself pursuing a traditional career," she sighed.  "It's not that I don't want to work. I just don't want to go to work every day, at the same place, doing the same thing.   Take yourself for example.  You're always practicing medicine, but you're helping different people with different problems every day.   I would love that."

"It's never too late to go to university," Angie pointed out.  "With 12 credits in Biology, you'll be a nurse practitioner, if I remember correctly."

Beth shook her head.  "I don't think going to university is right for me.  I'm not sure enough about what I want to do.  That's the thing; I want to do all kinds of things, but not enough to make a whole career out of any of them..."

Angie's brown eyes lit up as an idea popped into her head.  "Who says you have to pick just one?"

Beth (L) and Angie (R) discuss Beth's plans

"I'm listening..."

"Lots of people have non-traditional jobs, B.  Think about your mom...she sells some of her paintings, doesn't she?  

"Yes, but she's really talented," Beth pointed out.

"Because she's worked at it.  You're a very good writer, Beth. If you worked at that, you could sell some of your writing.  And you're getting better and better at cooking.  Maybe you could open a food stall.  And I think you tried to learn to knit once upon a time, didn't you?" 

Beth's blue-green eyes lit up, too.  "And if I got pretty good at several of them, I could do all of them..."

Angie nodded and giggled.  "That is truthfully not as silly as it seems.  You'll be a gig worker."

"A...versatile freelancer."

"An independent contractor."  The friends clasped hands across the table and laughed together.  

"Thank you so much, Angie. I can't tell you how good this feels...to feel like I have a plan."

"You don't have to.  I can tell."

That evening, Beth sat down and made a list of different things the Versatile Freelancer could do.

She could do only three of these things with any ability at all. She'd have to learn the rest from Day One.  

And she'd have to convince her parents to continue to support her while she learned.