Thursday Thirteen

I have been thinking about careers. My career path has been rather erratic. For 10 years I worked in the legal field as a legal secretary. I don't think there are legal secretaries any more.  During that time I also freelanced and wrote articles. Then in 1993 I began freelancing full time, and that's all I did up until I started back to college last year.

Oh, there were a few little things here and there - one year I worked as a substitute teacher in the lower grades, which I absolutely hated. Occasionally I worked as a temp worker and that was always interesting. But writing was my passion and while I haven't followed it exactly as I planned (there is no book to show for all of that work, after all), I did manage to make a living at it for almost 20 years. And that's more than many folks.

But now I am wondering what I might have done had writing not been the thing driving me. So here are 13 career options that might have worked out for me:

1. College professor. Obviously, I would have to have gone to college right out of high school and then went after a Ph.D. to have managed this one. I think, though, of all the things I might have done, this would have suited me best. I have my bachelors and my masters is within my grasp. The Ph.D.? not so close.

2. Lawyer. This, too, would have required a great deal more schooling, but I enjoyed the legal profession when I was working in it. I wasn't too keen on the personality of the some of the lawyers, because many of them were jerks, but I like the idea of the law. I  particularly enjoyed estate work and I could see myself doing that.

3. Forest ranger. I tested high for this job when I was in high school. I was offered a summer internship as a park ranger but my parents would not let me go. But I think I would have liked it.

4. Psychologist. Another job that requires a great deal more education. I have a lot of empathy, though, and I have been told that I give good advice and I am a good listener.

5. Artist. This requires talent, which I do not have, in that I cannot draw very well at all. I have taken a few art classes in my time and I have never been successful at it. I am not very crafty, either.

6. Photographer. Actually, I have done this, so perhaps it doesn't belong here, but I never really considered myself a professional photographer even though I have published and been paid for many, many photographs. I'm more of an auto-setting sort of girl when it comes to the camera, though I do play around with the F-stops and such occasionally. But mostly I fly by the seat of my pants and any really good photos I've managed to take have been the result of luck, not talent.

7. Sociologist. After my sociology class last spring, I thought this would have been an interesting field of study. I am particularly interested in the field of women's studies, and probably would have gravitated in that direction.

8. Musician. Here again, talent is key. I played guitar well enough, and I have a good musical ear, but I never felt I had the true talent necessary to be a professional. I lacked the drive, I think. But it would have been an interesting life.

9. Private investigator. Now this would be exciting, wouldn't it? Even though I think in real life, PIs mostly investigate things like insurance fraud. The cloak-and-dagger stuff really doesn't happen, but I like to solve problems and use my intuition to figure out the next move, so this might have been a really interesting line of work for me.

10. Historian. I consider myself an amateur historian, of sorts, and have written many articles about the local history. However, I don't dig around in the archives and I'm not much on musty old buildings because of my asthma and allergies. So maybe not, but not something to toss aside because I do have an interest in the subject.

11. Video game creator. I don't even know if this is a job, but I think it would be cool to work in the video game industry and create video game story lines.

12. Town Manager. I think I would like some kind of job with a small government like a town. It would be detailed and interesting, changing every day.

13. Librarian. This would require more schooling, too, as most librarians today must have a masters degree in library science. But I think it would be fun.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 208th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday