Reply To: PPVE Grads – Share your updates & stay connected
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Hi Kristen and Rachael,
It’s been more than 6 months since I completed the PPVE and the course gave me SO much clarity around what I want and value. I’m currently enrolled in a Masters of Health Promotion degree and loving it and working part-time across 2 x jobs, one which is 2 x days a week at home and hours I can complete flexibly. These jobs are 7 out of 10s. They feel good ‘for now’ but are not forever and are a means to an end while studying.
Although I’ve gained a lot of clarity around what I want, I’m finding I’m frequently feeling frustrated and impatient about wanting a lot of things now – as in yesterday haha This feeling of frustration occasionally transitions into anxiety. Here’s what I know I ‘want’:
– Finish my Masters in Health Promotion
– Purchase my first home with my partner
– Work in a 9/10 or 10/10 job that pays me a ‘big girl’ pay cheque of $70-80k a year
– Have my first baby with my partner
For my master degree, I completed my first trimester and loved the subjects – it was a lot of work and I felt exhausted by the end of trimester, but it feels like it’s worth it and I really want to keep going. Realistically, I can’t finish it for another 18 months.
For the first home, my partner and I have been steadily saving and are about $5-$10k away from our goal. The thing with saving for a home is it often feels like the biggest marathon and at times the finish line feels so close and yet so far away. Especially when you’re independent adults who don’t take money from family. We can be steadily saving and then bigger expenses like car repairs, dentist bills and milestone events come up – so your savings plan takes a step back again.
For my job, my current roles are not bad but I know I’m choosing to earn at least $20k a year below what I’m currently worth because that’s how much I lose on a pro-rata part-time salary. I prefer to work part-time while I’m studying rather than try to study and work full time, which I know would give me too much stress. I’m also currently subscribed to job alerts for the type of roles I’d like to apply for once I finish my masters health promotion degree, and I find myself often coming across job descriptions of roles that sound really exciting, offer great money and I feel a bit wistful I can’t just apply for them now.
For the baby front, once I turned 29 something just awakened inside me that said ‘I’m ready to have a baby.’ I want to have that little bundle on my lap and my partner is quite clucky too. He has said he’d prefer for us to buy a home first and ideally he’d even want me to have finished my masters and started a high-paying job as well before trying. At 30 we do have time to ‘beat the biological clock’ but every year goes by the desire to have a baby is just growing stronger.
Can I calm the angst and find patience? Are there any lessons or exercises I should be going back over from the course, or focus more on my CDFs? Or any strategies I haven’t thought of?