Backup Plans
This past week was a little rough at work. In an effort to deal with the stress, I allowed myself to ponder what I could be doing if I had made different life choices. Is there a perfect career out there for me? I don't know. My gut feeling is that there is not. Nonetheless, here are some other jobs I have considered: I frequently wonder if I missed my calling by not choosing to write for a living. My most influential English teacher encouraged me to write; even one of my history teachers called me for a meeting one morning to ask about my future plans. Based on the quality of my papers, she said it would be a shame if I gave up writing completely. In middle school I did think I would write, but ultimately I was too afraid of deadlines, criticism, and stiff competition to pursue that path. Those are probably still reasonable concerns, but sometimes I daydream about writing science nonfiction books or articles for magazines. By now it's obvious that I love sharing knowledg...