Growing up I’ve been apart of many things. I’ve done girl scouts for five years, gymnastics for 6 years(both at young ages), going to reptile expos, stepping into the fashion world and have gone through a dental lab program in high school and followed it throughout to college and recently got my associates. Through all these different things I still struggle with seeing one of them as a discourse community that I am apart of, the reason being is I thought I had the same goals as my individuals but it eventually changed and I felt separate from them.
Being in the Restorative Dental program felt right pre-covid. I was working in a dental lab at the time, sorta like an intern position. I was just getting the hang of things. This one small lab I worked in I was once apart of that discourse community. We all had the same goal, to work hard and learn new things from each other to only benefit our work, the dental community, our clients, Dr’s and patients. I started at 17 years old and my boss asked me to work full-time but he only wanted to hire me if I knew this was for sure what I wanted to do. That question right there made me question everything although I relied yes and took the job I eventually started to feel the walls closing in on me. I felt less and less motivated but I had already gotten the job and gotten into the program for college and felt I had to finish this, it was my only interest at the time so why not go for it? Even though my interest was slowly dwindling.
Before I knew it, Covid hit! I couldn’t work at the lab but August comes and I end up going in person and become apart of this new discourse community in college. We all had the same goals to finish the lab program and learn all about restorative dentistry! Now I have graduated knowing I am not interested in this field. I am back to square one. I am going into my bachelors for psychology and recently got a retail job because I love clothes, shopping and fashion.
To try and sum up what I feel and why I am confused is I don’t know which communities I feel I should still identify with and which ones I am currently still apart of. I am no longer in the dental field but have all this history and knowledge. I had identified with the dental community for so long that I no longer know where I belong. I have just started my retail job and am playing such a minor part in the field which doesn’t feel enough to write about, and I haven’t started my psychology journey yet but hope to become apart of a psyc student discourse community.
Ah, such is life… We do go from DC to DC as we grow and change our interests and career paths. This doesn’t have to be about a profession, as I’m sure you know.
You might think about your move back into retail and why you’re enjoying it. Any specific job is discourse community itself, complete with language and jargon and rules both written and unwritten about that specific job. Being a new member even though you like shopping and clothes etc gives you a chance to really think about what it means to be new AND to becoming a regular part of the store/job. You could tell us about your journey as you’re working your way into that one specific job.
Just a thought…