Good weekend but distracted - trying to get ready to leave for Virginia Tuesday and walking and working in between. Days are shorter when more than an hour is used for exercise, but that's good. I'm enjoying our walks even though nights are hot.
We celebrated our friend Marie's birthday yesterday (unfortunately Joanna's car fell apart -broken axle just as Tracy arrived with the children. I liked his perspective that he was thankful it didn't happen at high speed.) K.K. looked completely gorgeous and way too grown up in a green dress she "shopped" for in the closet of Ruth's very fashionable sister-in-law. (Thank you Kelly.) Time really is passing there's no missing that K.K. is a young lady these days, not one of the flock of cute kids that turns up at parties. Danny and Zach are still delightfully part of that flock.
I need to get back to question answering, and I have some wonderful hard ones to answer - but it's late again and I'll stick to easy. Mary my friend asks what career I would choose if I could suddenly have a different career without training or other realistic things being an issue.
I think I would choose (nothing like hubris here) to be a published novelist well regarded and teaching writing in a good master's program at a major university. I might even get to give the occasional graduation speech at a university. Or I would have gone the theater route and at this point would be retired from a career as a "gypsy" dancer on Broadway and would be teaching dance - would have been successful enough to afford a decent apartment in Greenwich Village and would spend lots of time in museums and at shows. Like I said - nothing like hubris!
4 comments:
I have been away but it was good to catch up a bit here. What an interesting question about what career you would follow if training and talent were not an issue.
Lets see...I am still very fond of some of the avenues I did not take in my journalistic career. I think I would have moved into public radio, perhaps as a planner and designer of programs, or making documentary films.
I might have pursued health education as a nurse practitioner. That would mean of course that I was good in front of people and working one to one.
I might also have been a brain and psychology researcher working at a major university.
I also would have liked planning things, like perhaps even city planning or being an architect.
But whether I would actually enjoy the life associated with any of these choices, I don't know. The everyday realities of many jobs are not what they seem. There are probably many other things I'd like as well. But these are the first that come to my mind.
Sorry I have not commented on your answer to my question earlier. I'd read it, but not had a chance to comment. It makes sense that you would want to be a well-published novelist. Or a "gypsy" dancer. I can picture you as both.
I do wonder what would have / could have happened if some of us had started writing SERIOUSLY at a much younger age. Say, in our 20's. What might have been possible? But in those years most were busy getting careers off the ground, social life which seemed SO important then, family, etc. and didn't have time / opportunity to just sit and concentrate on writing. I find myself wondering how people who write novels in their 20's or even 30's manage this.....unless they are independently wealthy and don't have to work a 40-hour a week job, or don't have spouse and/or children or social things to do in their time off work. I think it would be interesting to know the average age that an author completes (not even PUBLISHES, but completes) his/her first novel!
Peggy, it was interesting to read your answer to the question. I could see you as each of the things you mentioned. I definitely could see you working for public radio. You would have come up with some fascinating program ideas, I know. I could see you more as a psychologist than as a psychology / brain researcher, as a psychologist would spend time working with PEOPLE. I think of a researcher as a data person, and I think of you as more a people person than a data person.
My answer: In my 20's, I did fantasize myself a poet and would like to have been well known as a poet.
I had started my master's degree in counseling and guidance, but after a summer school of classes in that regard I decided that so often high school counselors worked with kids in getting them into college or steering them into career fields, and I was more interested in the psychological counseling aspect. For whatever reason, I dropped that idea and mastered in the same field as my minor.
All in all, I think my career path was the perfect fit. Hard to see for myself another realistic and successful and rewarding path. Some of my high school ideas for myself were therapist (I really liked/like psychology), newspaper reporter, social worker, secretary.
I meant to say not < For whatever reason, I dropped that idea and mastered in the same field as my minor.
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but
For whatever reason, I dropped that idea and mastered in the same field as my BA.
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