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Day 11 asks about my “what ifs”. If I took the time to really dive deep and think about this I’m sure I could come up with more than a few. But the first one that comes to mind is, “What if I had gone to school to be a sign language interpreter?” I have always loved sign language. I remember back as far as elementary school when, every year, someone would come into the school handing out little cards that had the manual alphabet and numbers on them. They looked a lot like the one below.

There are A LOT of things that I have forgotten, but I still remember getting that first card. I couldn’t make my fingers work fast enough. We were always so excited and tried to fingerspell everything for a while and then the other kids mostly forgot about it. But I didn’t. I always loved it. I don’t know why I didn’t have the foresight in high school to see what a great career this could be! Or why I didn’t have a guidance counselor that could help me figure out what I wanted. So I went to school and got a business degree. It’s a pretty vague degree. My focus was on finance because I wanted to work in a bank. Well, it didn’t take too long after working in a bank to decide that it wasn’t for me. But, surprisingly, to me and most people who knew me, I found my way to healthcare. I went to nursing school when my kids were small and it is something that I really like. There is just so much you can do with a nursing license. I’ve worked mostly temporary and/or seasonal jobs until recently because I homeschooled my children for the past 9 years.

Over the years I have taken several sign language classes. I was taking one with a friend when COVID shut everything down. We finished up that class but haven’t been able to move on to the next one. I’m also taking an online medical sign language class which I really like. I have used sign language some as a nurse and I hope to be able to use it more. So, even though I wonder “what if” I had become an interpreter, I’m still able to sign some and take classes to get better and that’s good enough.

Stay safe!