After a bit of rest, breakfast, a shower, and some coffee I am finally ready to play at this. Strange thing is, I don't know where to start. My wife, who is a Writer, says I should try my hand at writing. I'm not sure why, but she has a masters degree in creative writing and has been published, so she must see something in me.
I have my doubts, though. My dad has suggested that I would be a good teacher. He had worked in education for a very long career before he retired, so he must see something in me. However, when I have been put into the position of Teacher I feel nothing but fear, uncertainty, and frustration. When I am asked to train the new folks at work, I find myself wanting to just push them aside, take over their keyboard, and show them the RIGHT way to do it! Inevitably, that means MY way of doing it, of course. Then there are the long, pointless diatribes I tend to launch into, taking me and my 'student' far off course from the practical lesson. My diatribe usually consists of spades full of disconnected, unfinished, and possibly terrible philosophies on how to be a better CSR or something. So, Teaching may not be for me.
Then there is my own career jinxing that I see in my past. My first few jobs in highschool, besides coupon counter (another story for later) were in 'the food industry' which I swore I would NEVER take another job in! No Sir, not this guy. Nuh uh. Sure enough, after moving to Portland, OR and stumbling through a few failed attempts at other jobs and temp assignments, I found myself working for an Italian Deli. Okay, Pastaworks can only marginally be called 'the food industry' as I was the delivery driver and not working in the kitchen. Until a position opened up as a pasta maker. What was I thinking!?
So, given that by SWEARING that I would NEVER work in the food industry again I ended up working in the food industry again, I tried an experiment. I swore that I would NEVER work in a fun, creative, challenging job which paid me WAY too much, plus great benefits, terrific co-workers, and fully paid travel occasionally! And I waited. I looked over my shoulder, but my dream career was not sneaking up behind me. Oh well, it was worth a try. I guess you have to have been actually WORKING in a job like that before swearing off of it for that to work.
I have also been told I would be a good lawyer. No, I was not insulted by this. The suggestion was made by lawyers with whom I worked and respected. But I asked them how many of them are still paying off their student loans. It was unanimous. And although I do enjoy some aspects of the law, such as being able to help people, using logic and my urban hunting skills, I found too many aspects distasteful to me. Such as the billing structure, the career paths available to a young loan-owing lawyer, and the thought that I could dump a whole lot of money into school and still not get to work as a lawyer.... So, the end result is, I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. And I am getting older. By the minute.
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