Nun, Secretary, Librarian, Deputy Sheriff, Legal Secretary, Court Reporter, Lawyer, Private Detective

Those were all the career choices I considered, researched, sometimes took classes in as I navigated through life.

What brought the subject up was Mitchell’s comment that I should have been a private detective and Mistress Maddie’s comment about my comment to his drag nun post. It got me to thinking about my career choices.

I don’t recall, as a child, ever thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up. However, the fact I’d ask for, and sometimes get, a toy typewriter for Christmas, should have been a clue for me that I was leaning towards the secretarial field.

The first time I recall actually making a plan for a future me was around 15 years old. I wanted to be a Nun.

I was raised Baptist, but it wasn't me. I was quiet, reflective and the Baptists were noisy, loud.

A neighbor girl one day invited me to services at her Catholic Church.

I so enjoyed the Catholic church’s peaceful quiet atmosphere that I began sneaking off to attend the Catholic church on the regular.

Then, when I went to the movie theater, saw Audrey Hepburn’s movie The Nun’s Story twice in a row, I decided that was the life I wanted.

My controlling mom got wind of my leaning towards the Catholic religion, forbid my hanging out with my Catholic friend, attending the Catholic church again. Told me I was to be a schoolteacher.

I think it was in my last year of Jr. High School when us students were counseled to choose a career path for our high school years.

Though Mom told me to say teacher, Secretary came out of my mouth, and I was gently told that was not an achievable goal for a person with my skin color, that I should go into nursing.

I’m way too squeamish for that, so I went aimlessly into high school with nothing in mind. It was just the regular classes — Math (that I sucked at), English (I excelled), Homemaker stuff like sewing/cooking classes.

It was during my last year of high school, with mom expecting me to graduate, find a way into a Teacher Education Program, poor as we were, that something inside gave me the strength to defy her. I was tired of being poor, wanted to earn money when I graduated, enrolled in a typing class, passed with an A+.

This is when it looked like the advice I'd been given — not an achievable goal for a person with my skin color, might be legit because, the A students in the class that were not of my skin color ... no effort on their part, were approached by recruiters to work in government offices.

However, the color of my skin was not always a negative. It helped me get my foot in the door and sometimes, during my career, brought recruiters and headhunters to me.

The first foot in the door was when I found my way into a position where a girl of color was needed by a white business operating in a predominately Black area.

It did not pay well but, from there, I tested and got a Clerk Typist position in public services.

The world evolved, my skills strengthened through technical college, continuing education classes, work experiences sharpening my skills.

My girls remember it as "Mom, you were always in school, working to give us a better life".

At any rate, I moved up from clerk typist to secretary, was many times the right person in the right place at the right time and accepted offers presented, one offer that got me into the legal field.

Along the way, when I'd end up working in positions where I endured racism, abuse of authority, or the bosses were bat shit crazy — like those years I worked with the witches (Henrietta, Joyce, Jane), I looked into other careers, like Library Sciences, but learned I was already making more money than Librarians.

I looked into taking a Private Detective course, but the school was too far away.

I even looked at going to Law School.

I took a test to get into law enforcement, passed the test, but the interview was a joke. Interviewers were obvious about not taking me seriously, flunked me out.

Funny thing though was that, not long after I was flunked out in the oral, there was a push to bring women into that field, but by then I’d already discovered Court Reporters were making tons of money, had poured myself into Court Reporting School.

I don’t remember how fast my skills on the stenotype machine tested out at, but I do remember I was fast, took the test to get certified, passed, got ready to apply for a position.

It was all so long ago that I also don’t recall if the position I was to apply for was with the Courts, the County or the State; but I do recall that, all of a sudden, something happened and hiring new Court Reporters was put on hold.

There’s now a shortage of Court Reporters.

It seems that every time I tried to move out of the secretarial field, a roadblock appeared and, when I was no longer interested in switching, the roadblock disappeared.

The Universe was leading me to stay in the secretarial lane.

It was a good lane. I sometimes had great bosses and because of all the classes I’d taken in other areas, my interest in and keeping up with technology, I had skills others did not have, had slowly been moving up to higher paying secretarial positions all along and, when reorganizations and layoffs occurred, I was considered valuable, remained employed, kept my salary when others suffered job loss and pay cuts.

Being a secretary wasn’t a grand ambition, but it's been an interesting path, worked out for me.

I sometimes wonder if my enjoyment of cosplay is an extension of my initial desire to move through life in fields other than those in which I was planted.