I’d love to reboot, but…

RebootYou.com received the following letter from a visitor to the site. With that person’s permission, I am reprinting it here because it seems to mirror the situation of so many people:

I would love to reinvent myself.

I have teaching degrees in English and Art but only taught HS English for a few months, quit to have my first child. I then was a stay at home Mom for 12 years raising 3 children.

When I went back to work I did it in the office arena. Not much fun there.

I love computers though, self taught everything I know on them, PC and Mac. Almost a geek!!

But the problem is money. How does one reboot without money? All the computer degrees, certificates or courses cost a lot.

My husband still works and although he barely makes enough to pay our bills, I do not qualify for any type of low-income training or scholarships.

So here I sit watching my life go by very rapidly without finding out what could have been.

My gut tells me that there are a lot of people today feeling the same way and experiencing the same kind of frustration. Here’s a summary of what I wrote in reply:

You know how to write. You are a self starter. You are a self-teacher and passionate about learning. You take initiative. Perhaps the most important attribute of all, you want to reinvent yourself.

I disagree that all courses cost a lot. I bet you could find some reasonably priced instruction at community colleges or community centers. Here are a couple of ideas to explore:

1. Go back to school – somewhere, anywhere.
2. Think about going back into teaching.
3. Look for writing jobs.
4. Start a blog.
5. Take time to dig through www.rebootyou.com more thoroughly. As I say on the home page, there's a lot of good stuff there, and something may inspire you.

Simple recommendations. Easy for me to say. Harder to do, especially in today’s real world. I hope they work for this potential rebooter. Maybe they will work for you, too.

Rebooting yourself may not be easy, but it’s not impossible, either. Wanting to do it is the first step. Doing it, though, is what counts.