Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do when I don’t work out on the road anymore. For years my plan was to go back to school, get a doctorate and become a professor.

I’ve applied to doctoral programs three different times since I finished undergrad and I haven’t gotten into a single one. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I don’t usually fail at stuff, so this has left me a little perplexed about exactly what my second act is going to be now.

Teaching at a college level seemed ideal to me because a lot of the work seemed to be done on your own time. There are several set hours a week you have to be in a classroom and some office hours you have to keep, but for the most part, you grade things and research on your own time. I totally get that’s still a lot of work, but a silly thing like being able to set a dentist appointment without it being near impossible to schedule sounds amazing.

And to be clear, we’re talking about practical lifestyle choices here – there are also plenty of theater areas I’m still interested in study, a genuine love of the subject, and an enjoyment of mentoring folks just starting out in their careers in the arts.

I think flexible schedules are pretty much what I’m looking for most in my next life. Theatre really doesn’t have flexible schedule, but I have always loved the jobs where you work till you feel you might die for a few months, but then you have a month or two straight off. Weekends are for the birds. Jobs with weekends just leave me dreading Monday.

I also think I probably want to be my own boss. I really don’t like working for other people. I don’t think I’m brave enough to be a full time blogger without the safety net of another job, but that would probably be ideal these days. The income from brokeGIRLrich and other little side hustles kept me afloat when I was unemployed last spring.

I’ve just recently started looking into how to become a financial planner and that looks like three or four more years of school and another two years working for a financial firm. That’s a massive investment to make that pivot. However, the schooling I could do is in a few different subjects and becoming a CPA doesn’t sound half bad to me. I laughed a lot when I realized that because for years at the beginning of my career, when I was irritated, I would mutter that I should’ve just become an accountant (which was particularly amusing because I really hate math). BUT if I became a CPA and did two years with an agency, I could then take the Certified Financial Planner test and go out on my own, running my own little business doing taxes and financial planning for people who work in the arts.

That five year commitment to get to that point though has me hesitating. Not to mention the idea of paying tuition again – older non-traditional students can qualify for scholarships too, right?

Not gonna lie, the notion of having to take calculus has me hesitating more than anything else.

Who else has left the arts? What did you do after?