Hey Carmen!
My experiences were pretty varied in terms of where I started and where I am today. GIS was never the goal, it just became a useful tool along the way. I got a degree in international affairs for my undergrad degree which is a fairly common degree for someone who grew up in the Washington DC area. Then I joined the Peace Corps and worked in Peru for 2 years and later rode out the financial crisis teaching English in Colombia. I came back to the US only to find out that with a degree in my field, 3+ years of international experience and fluency in two languages that I could not get a job. That's when I started looking at technical skills that I could pick up that would differentiate me and a graduate degree in GIS made a lot of sense.
GIS develops so quickly that if you're really good at picking up new developments, you can have a career that is focused primarily on doing GIS work. You'll need to be able to code, build apps, and do some other IT type stuff to hold this down. Or you can be a person who understands GIS and finds that techy person to implement your ideas and goals.
The majority of my contacts on linkedin are still from the international development field. If you want, I'd be happy to facilitate a connection with any of my contacts there.