What job do you wish you tried? Had?

I wish I could be a doctor. Fascinated by it. The ethical issues involved with it mostly.

That said, I tend to want to pass out when people stick me with needles, while watching Alien, watching veterinary procedures performed on my cat, etc...

So probably not something I was inteneded to do, eh?

I guess it's pretty large compared to my fiction writing income, but certainly nothing to write home about.

By the way, Connie Willis would tell you that the job for people who are "too curious" is called "writer." I love how she says that for writers, EVERYTHING is their business, so they can be as nosy as they like.

As for me: astronaut or forensic anthropologist

I ended up with a degree in Anthropology, but my career is nowhere near as interesting: vocational rehabilitation.

quote:

---

I spend my days pondering what I should have done instead of engineering.

---

Actually, my grandfather was an engineer...he built bridges (and Stewart Field in Newburgh, NY). Dilbert is an engineer...he doesn't build bridges...

quote:

---

Honestly if I could stay in school the rest of my life it would be ok with me. I love learning.

---

The problem for me was the opposite. I could not wait to be done with school. I love to learn, but teachers and I have never seen eye to eye (a problem my children's teachers are seeing now). When I got to college, I found professors to be a bit more open to other ways of thinking.

The other problem is school takes too long. I love to learn, but I don't want to spend the next six months on one class. Let me take the whole class in a 40 hours in one week course and I would love school again.

Impatience can be a virtue too.

And that's where I've really met some interesting people... through horses. All kinds. Rich, poor, and everywhere in between at horse shows, horse association meetings and activities, organized trail rides, and giving riding lessons. You wouldn't believe the variety of people involved with horses.

Take that summer I spent with a hunter/jumper stable. I was there every weekend. The lady who ran the place gave me jumping lessons in exchange for helping around the place.

She had a step-son who came home to visit on occasion. He was a jockey for a Quarter Horse stable. I remember taking my mare Wimpy over the outside jump course and caught him watching me. Later, he complimented my form over fence and riding abiliites. (Note: I was 21 at the time and weighed around 105 pounds.) He offered to put in a word for me where he worked to ride race horses as an exercise girl with a chance to become a jockey. I had to really think that over. I was so tempted but afraid I'd have no time for my own horses and turned him down.

How about Chief Beer Taster? or Harem Quality Controller. Hmm, yes, that one. I can even feel a story coming on

quote:

---

I suppose Eunuch would be an all-right job

---

quote:

---

Gee, maybe you were born the wrong species .

---

Not all of me

Seriously, I'd prefer the beer tasting, much less effort

Present: Engineer

Future: Author, Gunsmith

College was like a carnival for me--except for the stress/obsession for excellence (or at least high GPA) necessary to keep my career choices open. Still, there were thrills to be had, a seemingly endless selection of interesting courses to take, great people to learn from, and the empowering sense of community. I wanted to read and write and teach at the college level: probably in the English Department (though Humanities and History were also favorites of mine).

Back then, oh thirty odd plus years ago, I set myself the goal of achieving by the end of my Junior year either professional publication of my fiction or syndication of my comic strip (I was the cartoonist for the university paper and yearbook). However, the best I achieved was a smattering of encouraging rejection letters from the editors of F&SF and IASF, the University Bookstore purchase of a family-published paperback collecting my cartoons, and a brief spree of income from 52 illustrated ads I made for commercial business clients in Maine.
I just didn't meet my goals.

If I had, my life would have likely been far different. I would never have joined the Army, had a fairly intensive medical career, seen as much of the world as I have, and I probably would have instead accumulated a half-dozen worn tweed coats with felt patches at the elbows, and possibly a rack of garish bow ties, and a pipe.
And no guarantee I would have published any fiction.

What I recognized back then, at least for me, I had a better chance of becoming a physician than becoming a professional writer. And I did love medical science, and the idealistic image of being a respected leader in the community caring for others (I was dissuaded of this Marcus Welby image fairly soon, though. Working in a metropolitan public hospital will do this.)

Anyway, as my Junior year in college ended, I turned off the right half of my brain for 30 years and got accepted to Medical School, became a physician, practiced academic and clinical medicine, became involved at the local and state and national levels in my discipline, headed my group and Chaired the Imaging Departments of two hospitals--though I still had opportunities to teach...but just medicine. I even published in medical journals.

However, I've always kept the hope that "someday" I'd write... i.e. be creative again...and perhaps even go to "senior college" when I met the age requirement (not yet, but soon) and take a gallimaufry (cheerful assortment) of liberal arts courses of my choice.
And I won't have to worry about my grades.

Now, finally, that I have let go of nearly all my administrative medical duties, and the missus and I are happy empty nesters, I've unbarred the wooden door, shiny with shellac, to the right half of my brain...just enough to slip in on occassion. I've got a lot of cleaning to do, but I've dusted the old padded leather chair and writing table and placed them on the rug by the hearth and laid wood for a fire. Someday I'll settle in and light it, walk to the windows and pull back the curtains, and take inspiration from the view, over the hills and faraway and beyond the fields we know.

Respectfully,
Dr. Bob

I've always loved the lines.

quote:

---

The Cannon don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder.
I'm an over forty victim of fate.
My occupational hazard is my occupation is just not around.

---

quote:

---

If there was an opening for "Martian warlord," I never saw it advertised...

---

You have to go to theladders.com "100k plus jobs for 100K plus people."

There's three people smarter than you? Surely you're just being modest.

S-(

(a frown under a glare, in case you couldn't tell).

I prefer to do that instead of this:

You know the look a child has when he is caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar?

I just saw it in the mirror.

My apologies. I have no desire to embark on fruitless political arguments anyway. They all end up the same: several angry faces and no changed minds.

If you go to this page (which you can reach through the Smilies Legend link to the left of any reply box, by the way), you will see how I did the angry face, and some of the other faces available.

I confess that when I agree with what people have posted of a political nature, it's a little more challenging for me to do something about it. But I try to not let my own opinions and feelings factor into what I do here on the forum.

I think high school or collage would be more better for that.

Maybe being a radio DJ. Not much money in that but it might be fun and depending on the station exciting and rewarding in some ways. And on another thread I said I day dreamed about making enough money writing where I wouldn't need a full time job, so be a DJ for four hours five days a week and write the rest of the time.

Maybe being a Pastor but there's a lot of responsibility there, not to mention people watching you all the time.

There's being a CEO of multi-bullion dollar company. That's usually 60 to 80 hour a week job though. But even without experience on my part I figure after hearing about some of the failures in the last few years I could make the same mistakes and do for only half the money.

One more serious idea. Non-fiction writing. I have some political and societal ideas I wouldn't mind writing out or exploring even though the books would probably be short. Those types of books seem to be the in thing these days.

Hmmm, just read a post on another site where the poster discussed how she is writing political articles for a certain web site that pays per click. Need to check them out...if I can find the time to write a whole article and if I can do the way they want it.