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Writer's pictureApril Schiel

What do you want to be when you grow up?




"What do you want to be when you grow up?"


I think it’s a bit insulting to ask me that as a 41 year old, mom, but I’ll humor you.


When I was a wee little lassie, I thought being a dinosaur would be pretty cool!  Welder? Eh, maybe. Professional coffee drinker? I didn’t start that training until my twenties.  Ironically, right around the time I decided to go for my paramedic certification. Now, as I see my friends’ kids growing up and graduating from school, I never ask that question.  You are 18 after all! Figure out what you want do with your life RIGHT NOW.


And so, here I am.  I just turned 41 and I’m still trying to figure out how to be a professional whatever I pick that day.


I graduated high school and started work as a professional horse groom. I was 17, living two hours from home, and working my butt off to make the top trainers’ jobs easier. I mucked stalls. I swept aisles. I unloaded hundreds of bags of bedding. I was voluntold to bring the youngsters in from the field and start their show horse careers.  I enjoyed it, but after a year, I decided I didn’t want to do barn chores for a career. There wasn’t much riding involved in that show barn but I learned how to pitch poop like a boss.


And then I thought it would be fun to play with lights and sirens.


Working as a nurse and a paramedic means I never really have to leave the medical world—I just switch uniforms.


You'd think the skills would overlap seamlessly, right? Wrong. One moment, I'm explaining to a patient why they can't have extra jello, and the next, I'm in the back of an ambulance, wondering why there’s a chicken in the road at 3 a.m. Yes, that happened. Goats? Yup, also happened. Don't ask about the alpaca...


In addition to my medical adventures, I run a business. Why? Because who needs sleep anyway? Between shifts, I'm managing inventory, marketing my products, and trying to figure out how to write off coffee as a business expense. You may have heard of it!


MuckMeister Enterprises, LLC…ya know…the creator (me!) of the Bedding Blocker®.

I guess I’ve always just wanted to help people. Make lives easier. I used to be able to tack up a horse in 7 seconds, and I knew exactly what the trainer wanted on a specific horse. Now, I throw my old reliable trail saddle on Dunkin and just goooo. I’ll clean his stall later. Unless I decide to start my career as a dinosaur. 

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