Did you feel you had a choice?
Ok, I'll play...
In high school, I was doing plays and taking computer classes. Also lots of the sciences.
So, when I graduated those were the three main fields that interested me.
I had an Atari computer at the time (16k ram, tape storage), and met a Case Western computer engineer while doing a play. When he found I was interested in programming, he gave me a thick book to read. I think it was "Interactive Principles of 3D Computer Graphics". Heavy on math, and just plain heavy too. After a week with it, I'd written a rudimentary 3D wire-frame graphics program in basic, with only 16k of ram. When I showed it to him, he offered me my first programming job.
So, for the next 25 years or so, I was a programmer by day, actor by night. (also kept up with the sciences on the side).
About 10 years back, I got laid off from my computer job and switched to voice acting.
And "Did I have a choice?" Absolutely. There are always choices... we just may not like some of them. I chose computers first because I felt it would provide a better income. It allowed me to advance as an actor until I was over-ripe, er, ready!
Next!
I was analytical as a kid, took everything apart tosee how it worked! Loved designing things with Meccano, enjoyed chemistry, adored my little microscope, cane first in science every year and was pencilled in for a whole crop of exams for certificates.
Then my father pulled me out of school almost on the first legal day he could do so. No cerrs, no chance of an apprenticeship or further teaining. Joined the RAF as a wireless mechanic. Big mistake.
Left RAF and felt like square plug in round hole. Took psychometric aptitude testing (1972) - came out as law, social work, editing, teaching and similar. Engineering had negative scores. But I was good at it so got a job in applied research. Did great until the department boss retired and the new one took a dislike to me because I had no formal qualifications. Then worked as sales coordinator for small instrumentation company for a while, but the CEO was a monomaniac.
Eventually got another job as senior lab tech for a larger instrumentation company. Was left alone so long as nothing went wrong that I could not fix.
Got made redundant in 2004, took early retirement and did an adult prep course for uni. Whilst on the course I took another psychometric test. Results said I should be working in law, social work, editing, teaching . . . This despite achieving a score on the "mechanical" aptitude test that literally went "out of the box" on the graphical representation of the results!
I have always enjoyed writing techical/historical stuff at the"popular" level, explaining complex concepts in simple terms. But I also really enjoyed solving engineering problems. Perhaps, if I had managed to get a degree, I would have been happy as a science journalist or similar.
Anyway, almost full time sci-fi reader niow . . . But still cannot read any book without wanting to proof-read, edit or even re-write it!
I don't have a profession. I had what the doctor called a "mental breakdown" and was in and out of hospitals for a few years to which the insurance company said I should relax for awhile. So I got on disability real fast and have been taking g it as easy as possible ever since. Although I do get told by my family to "get a job", I'm not going to take some McDonald's occupation where I'm over worked and under paid. So off to school if they ever award me my damn money like they're supposed to.
So I didn't chose to be where I am now but I'm choosing where to go from here.
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on February 04, 2017, 01:58:05 PM
Did you feel you had a choice?
I think there's always a choice - we may not like the choices we have or even regret some of the ones we've made but there are always options.
I've been working pretty much since I was 14 and got my first job as a janitor's assistant. I worked at a grocery store through high school and after I graduated and started college I snagged a job as a pager salesman and repair technician - such massively useful skills now. The sad part is that wasn't the only time the progress of technology made my skill set useless.
After a three semesters of college majoring in art and design, I joined the Navy. I was assigned the rate of lithographer - offset printing, camerawork, photo development, some desktop publishing, bindery work, etc. I did that until I was medically separated for nocturnal epilepsy. At the time I thought I still wanted to pursue something in art and design and figured those lithography skills would be useful in the civilian sector - I was wrong. After a couple of years working in a commercial print shop, technology took over my job. So I went back to school and decided to go into the field of psychology - in retrospect, a bad decision.
I worked all throughout school as a loss prevention specialist, a domestic violence advocate, and a computer lab assistant at my university. I graduated with my B.S. in psychology in 2006 and went off to study neuroscience. Straight outta school with a fresh bachelor of science and I was able to snag a job as a Starbucks barista. Later I found a part time job as a media services technician.
I then switched schools and programs - another mistake and went off to study health psychology. There I was able to find a job as a residential advisor for a Job Corps center. That didn't last very long and I then took a job as a service learning coordinator for a local school district part time, then as a research assistant at my university which was a temporary position and then I finally landed a job in the field of research as a lab technician for a defense contractor working for the Army - pretty much just dumb luck. Their web crawler found my resume online and I had enough keywords that it popped up in their feed.
That job was great and I learned a lot but funding ran out and I was laid off. I ended up taking a job with the the health and human services department doing Medicaid eligibility for nursing homes - long hours, terrible pay. At that point I finally completed and defended my thesis and received my masters. After a year of working for the HHSC and applying for hundreds of jobs, I received an offer for a consulting project and jumped on the chance. I did that for a while and the company I was consulting for offered me an employee position so I took it and have been with them since - the last five years.
I have tried to find some more lucrative positions (when I was hired, they lowballed me on the starting salary - extremely lowballed) but nothing so far. To make myself more marketable, I started another masters program which I will finish next spring in human resource development and will jump directly into an MBA program aftward. I have also been working on putting together my own consulting company focusing on organization wellness (occupational health psychology) and performance improvement (business process and human capital).
For me my goals have changed over time. Originally I pursued what I thought was my passion at the time and then thought I could work that into a more applied skill. It was essentially made obsolete by technology - who needs a professional lithographer when you have a high school kid behind the counter at the Staples print center. I then, again, decided to pursue a passion - strike number two. I've gone about as far as I can in this field with my education - to go any further I'd need a doctorate and that is not financially and logistically possible. However, online masters programs are accessible. So I've made a change to pursue more lucrative, in demand education and skills - human resources/marketing/consulting areas. It's essentially my last ditch effort in hopes that I won't have to work until I die.
So, did I have a choice? Absolutely, I had a lot of choices. Did I make the right ones for me? No, in hindsight I made a couple of big mistakes and also was blindsided by some bad luck - medical discharge from the military, technology reducing my skills to a McJob level, being laid off and so forth. But the important thing is that I still have a couple of decades worth of work time left in me and that I learned from my past and used that to direct my future.
Sorry for the long story but I felt some context would be helpful.
Going to law school and becoming a lawyer hit me in a flash of inspiration - I can still remember it. The inspiration got me through law school, and this is about all I know how to do now that makes me any money, so I stuck with it. But the initial moment was pure inspiration - almost revelation.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on February 04, 2017, 10:05:11 PM
Going to law school and becoming a lawyer hit me in a flash of inspiration - I can still remember it. The inspiration got me through law school, and this is about all I know how to do now that makes me any money, so I stuck with it. But the initial moment was pure inspiration - almost revelation.
An epiphany? A "Road to Damascus" moment?
:grin:
Quote from: Gloucester on February 04, 2017, 10:11:40 PM
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on February 04, 2017, 10:05:11 PM
Going to law school and becoming a lawyer hit me in a flash of inspiration - I can still remember it. The inspiration got me through law school, and this is about all I know how to do now that makes me any money, so I stuck with it. But the initial moment was pure inspiration - almost revelation.
An epiphany? A "Road to Damascus" moment?
:grin:
Not that dramatic, but sort of, yes.
Choice? Sure. Focused on my one choice right off the bat, and while I wouldn't call it a mistake, I do think I limited myself a little too much.
So I was always interested in computers once my father brought one home. I was 9 and I loved working on it, figuring how to write scripts, install new hardware, program a bit, and most importantly, play games. And once the internet came along, I knew it, that's what I wanted to do. Music was my other passion at the time, I played clarinet and saxophone and I was pretty good at them, so I decided that those were going to be my exclusive focuses. I went to engineering undergrad majoring in computer science with a second major in music. And those were most of the classes I took, computers and music. Didn't take another language after a bad experience in high school with French. No writing papers in liberal arts courses. Nothing else really.
I've been out of school for 15 years now and I've carved out a very nice career managing large-scale server farms (tens of thousands of machines at a time) that pays very well and allows a lot of flexibility. So I'm pretty content. That being said, focusing only on 2 things was not a great idea. I burned out on music and stopped playing after college, except for an aborted attempt at learning piano, and lately I've found myself feeling somewhat stale with my career too. I've basically been doing the same thing for the past 6 or 7 years.
So yes, I had choices and I don't regret what I did, but I didn't really explore my other choices as much as I could have. If I had to do it over, I would have branched out a little more. Maybe dabble in some other courses just for the hell of it (economics? Some other sciences?) I think part of my problem is that I found a couple of things I was really good at and focused only on those because I was afraid of looking bad starting something else. I still struggle with that to this day.
Not sure if that answered the question.
I did not choose, apparently some other set of circumstances chose me. My father was a bright, inventive, restless man who was a skilled mechanical guy, superb machinist and tool maker, race car driver and builder, (Indianapolis 500, 1930, the year I was born) and a lot of other factors that made me a genetically disposed to being a gearhead.
I ran a garage in my backyard when I was 15. I repaired Cushman scooters and also ran a backyard bicycle shop. Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. I was born with a wrench in my hand. Somewhere along the way I realized or was advised by a wiser person that the possibility for advancement for a mechanic is limited. Korean war.....I enlisted in the Coast Guard to avoid the draft. Was sent to gunners mate/ fire control school. (fire control is the art of aiming big guns in such a way as to hit the target) Lots of math involved. We did not have computers in those olden times of the 1950s. I did well in the classrooms and also on the actual mechanical and hydraulic parts of keeping toys like a quad 40 caliber anti aircraft gun working. There were bigger cannons like what was known as a three inch 50. A big three inch bore deck gun. Primitive piece of gear but deadly for the enemy when used well.
For whatever reason, I was made into a classroom school teacher for the fire control school. I never did get shipped off to the Korean theatre of operations. Lucky me. I was a school teacher that taught some math subjects and some electricity and ancient electronics, such as they were in the 50s. After discharge I was blessed with the G I Bill that paid my college tuition and supplied a very small stipend while in college. My college, University of Florida, prided itself in conferring education on the students as opposed to training. I was not allowed to start my serious pursuit of an engineering degree before I earned my associate of arts degree. Arts my ass, I am a gear head. Nonetheless I was required to learn some things about the finer arts like music, philosophy, literature, and such, I wanted to be an engineer.
I finally got out of school and had no problem finding a job for shavetail engineers who did not actually know his ass from second base even though I had the diploma and a good background in making and fixing things, even designing and building stuff. I worked in an industry whose main thrust was building forms for prestressed concrete elements. A form is a huge steel mold. I worked at that profession for several years until I could tolerate the management style of my arrogant employers no more. I quit and started my own little business. Sewing sail covers? Yes sail covers and other canvas items mostly for sail boats. That business took off and developed into a much larger business that at one time had 45 employees, 75 sewing machines, plastic welding equipment, die cutting machinery, and a screen printing department. In the mid 80s the competition from China and Taiwan began to eat my lunch. After a time it became clear that this business is going to fail. I sold the equipment, my beautiful building, and everything that had anything to do with Rosson Company Inc.
I had a little bit of money then but no job. I needed to earn some money to keep my self afloat for the long haul. What the hell I will take a flyer and do something that no one else is doing on an independent basis. I will travel around the country and repair screen printing machinery. That worked out pretty well and I was gone to Denver, or Philadelphia, or Miami, or parts unknown, damned near all the time. Well that became a bit tiresome. Being on the road, living in hotels, or flea bag motels was not my cup of tea. Started another business, inventing, patenting and manufacturing self tensioning frames for the screen printing industry. That led to the design of a few precision measuring instruments that were needed tools for the screen printer. That business went pretty well for nearly 30 years when another industry participant offered to buy the business that was then called by the name RST. (Rosson Screen Technologies) I sold out and it was about time. I am sad to say not wealthy, but reasonably secure at age 86. Lucky as hell that I am still healthy and free of the need for medications.....well there is Bourbon and Scotch if that counts. Throughout my several careers I have utilized my skills with machinery, hydraulics, control circuitry, machine shop practices and some engineering disciplines that used some math and a lot of imagination. There was always the element of damned uncommonly good luck.
My only regret is that I sold all of my machine shop tools like lathes, milling machines, surface grinders, anodizing equipment and all the rest except the pile of hand tools that live in my garage along with my dragon. I surely do miss the facilities for making almost anything my little brain might conjure.
Sorry (not really...you asked I told) about the lengthy reply. Some of you, the ones not completely bored by all that descriptive stuff, will know the old fool a little better now. I did not even regale you with my exploits as a professional motorcycle racer, or a hydroplane racer along the way.
Tank: at one time my highest ambition was to race at the Isle of Man GP. A potentially suicidal thing to do but the stuff that young racers are made of. I did have semi competitive equipment and some limited factory sponsorship (NSU of Germany)
Before I close, let me go on record as being grateful for the inclusion that you have allowed me with these several years of HAF membership. Thank you for your acceptance and may the FSM bless you one and all.
Quote from: Icarus on February 05, 2017, 01:40:54 AM
Sorry (not really...you asked I told) about the lengthy reply. Some of you, the ones not completely bored by all that descriptive stuff, will know the old fool a little better now. I did not even regale you with my exploits as a professional motorcycle racer, or a hydroplane racer along the way.
Damn, that was a fascinating read, thank you for sharing. You've had quite the life, Icarus.
Quote from: Firebird on February 05, 2017, 05:04:37 AM
Quote from: Icarus on February 05, 2017, 01:40:54 AM
Sorry (not really...you asked I told) about the lengthy reply. Some of you, the ones not completely bored by all that descriptive stuff, will know the old fool a little better now. I did not even regale you with my exploits as a professional motorcycle racer, or a hydroplane racer along the way.
Damn, that was a fascinating read, thank you for sharing. You've had quite the life, Icarus.
Hear, hear!
This is a great thread... So many interesting people, choices and jobs here.
Seems to be a lot of arts/science mixing as well.
Never too late to make a new choice if you feel the need.
Nice to know you all a bit better.
Quote from: Firebird on February 05, 2017, 05:04:37 AM
Quote from: Icarus on February 05, 2017, 01:40:54 AM
Sorry (not really...you asked I told) about the lengthy reply. Some of you, the ones not completely bored by all that descriptive stuff, will know the old fool a little better now. I did not even regale you with my exploits as a professional motorcycle racer, or a hydroplane racer along the way.
Damn, that was a fascinating read, thank you for sharing. You've had quite the life, Icarus.
I'll go with that as well!
I think you were born in a time when there was less regulation, more self-reliance, perhaps more freedom to do things that would be frowned upon now (or in the UK.)
Still something of that in America it seems with the Maker Fairs etc. We have one in the UK at the moment, in Newcastle this year. Maybe we can promote more, I hope.
Quote from: Firebird on February 05, 2017, 05:04:37 AM
Quote from: Icarus on February 05, 2017, 01:40:54 AM
Sorry (not really...you asked I told) about the lengthy reply. Some of you, the ones not completely bored by all that descriptive stuff, will know the old fool a little better now. I did not even regale you with my exploits as a professional motorcycle racer, or a hydroplane racer along the way.
Damn, that was a fascinating read, thank you for sharing. You've had quite the life, Icarus.
Yes, I agree. Quite interesting. 86 and still going strong!
Quote from: joeactor on February 05, 2017, 03:32:01 PM
So many interesting people, choices and jobs here.
I agree. :smilenod:
Ok, my turn I guess. :notsure:
So many interesting professional lives! I really enjoyed reading all the stories, thanks all for sharing. :)
Well, IMO our professional lives start in school, so here goes:
After I finished high school I took a year off before going to private university, from which I dropped out after one semester, due to exorbitant fees and the fact that my parents had just gotten divorced, so I was really hopelessly depressed at the time. Classes were easy and I was doing well, but I just didn't want to go anymore. I don't regret that decision.
Fast forward a few years, after an academic hiatus with no 'real' job to keep me busy, I got into a public (better) university, majoring in Letters (English and Portuguese). If I were to say that I hated it, it would be an understatement. I loathed it. Classes just sucked and I spoke better English than the non-native teachers did, so you get an idea of their quality. Massively disillusioned, I dropped out after one year. I don't regret that decision.
When I turned 26 I got into the same public university again, this time hoping to get a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences. It's a different experience when you're a more mature student, and I enjoyed most classes. I'm proud to say that I would be just one semester away from graduating, though to a variety of reasons I'm going to have to stretch that to two semesters. During the past three years almost I've been a paid neuroscience lab undergraduate intern, conducting my own research (under lots of supervision heh) and collaborating with others. Next year I intend to start my Master's in neuroscience, specifically dealing with memory. Since I receive a government funded grant I'm not allowed to hold a 'real' job, which has put me back a little financially.
So yeah, one on hand I can't wait to finish school, on the other I'm going to try and further my studies in an area of my choosing.
I'm worried about the future though, and if people living in first world countries think they have it bad, it's become way worse for science around here. The government is cutting spending on all fronts when there wasn't much to begin with. :sad sigh:
So, deep down, I don't know if I should continue or invest in a Plan B,C,D...
I can always continue to translate, speaking adequate English it is a marketable skill, and continue to pour all my disposable income into buying and selling books.
When I left school I had just recovered from Chicken pox which had put me in contact with a young nurse who told me stories about her training which took my interest. Several generations of my family had been nurses. There was not a lot of choice for women in those days. I discovered my parents were short of money and nursing training was free with food and accommodation. So, I became a nurse.
At the time (WWII) nursing was seen as a vocation rather than a job and carried many outside advantages like special rates in many shops, cinemas, theatres etc.; put in the front of any queue and the respect of the community. It was quite a hard life but very satisfying. Later I became a midwife which I enjoyed more than general nursing but had to give up after marriage and children of my own as it did not fit with domestic life. I saw many, many changes and am now retired but my daughter continued with the profession and has travelled the world with her qualifications.
Thank you xSilverPhinx for starting this excellent thread. It has been very interesting to read all the histories and I hope my story will not be too boring in comparison.
First of all, yes, I absolutely had a choice in my career path and cannot blame anyone else for the way my life has played out. In the matter of career choice nobody forced me to do anything, as will be clear from my story.
At school I was always equally at home in the "Two Cultures" and this was underpinned years later when several left-right brain tests revealed that I showed no dominance of one side over the other. That may explain my developing deep interests in art, architecture, and music from about the age of 10, but at the same time also reading all the science books I could lay my hands on. At this age I also discovered I liked boys more than girls, but that part of my story is for another time and thread. My parents never pushed me in any direction, and praised me equally when I proudly showed them my latest art project or science experiment. I must have been an insufferable little brat, because I always chipped into adult conversations with my opinions on art and science (think of me as a miniature, male Susan Sontag).
As a child, I liked to make lists of my "heroes" – this is a very interesting and telling exercise. I still like doing that - this may be a good topic for another new thread.
Anyway, a career advisor advised a career in the sciences rather than the arts: "You will always have a job as a scientist, but artists are the first to suffer when the economy is bad". Of the sciences, physics appealed to me most. So at nineteen, after a horrible year's compulsory military service, I enrolled as a first-year science student. My plan was to eventually graduate with physics as my major, but I soon learned that the staff in the Chemistry Department were much more convivial than the physicists. During the day, I found myself spending a lot of time associating with the chemists, in particular the organic chemists. That I found organic chemistry very appealing is not surprising: think of it as architecture on a very small scale.
Most evenings and weekends, however, I could be found at the local art school hanging around with sculptors, painters, and ceramicists. That is when I started my lifelong hobby of creating ceramic sculptures (again, a topic for another time). My room at home was also my painting studio (the award I won as best painter at the university is equally important to me as my PhD in organic chemistry). At that time I bought my first decent camera (a Nikon Nikkormat Ftn), starting another lifelong interest.
I eventually spent 8 years working towards a PhD. Halfway through I was appointed to the staff as a lecturer in organic chemistry. Lecturing was a good way to learn the theory of my subject, so I gained as much as I hope my student did. I did a few years of postdoctoral research and lecturing (universities in South Africa, London, Beirut) before becoming an applications specialist on Agilent Technologies instrumentation. Now that I am retired, turning 71 this year, I still do consulting and training, mainly in the field of chromatography-mass spectrometry.
I now have more time to dabble in some art projects and of course my other major love, classical music. That alone will need another of my over-long rambles to discuss. In the meantime, I hope my story will be of some interest to the other members of our group.
XSP, if you continue your interest in memory and happen to find a good source of capacity I am in tbe market for some . . .
Quote from: Gloucester on February 06, 2017, 08:39:43 AM
XSP, if you continue your interest in memory and happen to find a good source of capacity I am in tbe market for some . . .
The adage "use it or lose it" certainly applies to memory. Possibly the best exercise is reading, it trains all types of memory - working memory, short and long term.
There are two aspects of memory that you can seek to improve or include in order to better remember things. One is attention and the other is emotional valence. Despite what some people believe, we are animals with limited brain resources, just like any other, and are not good at juggling too many items in our brains at once. An overloaded working memory will not adequately consolidate very short term memories into longer lasting ones. So avoid multitasking when you want to remmeber. Next, emotional memories tend to persist longer in "normal" brains so if you're able to assign positive or negative value to what you want to remember, it can help those memories be more resistant to decay.
The only place in which adult neurogenesis occurs that we know of is the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, an essential stucture for the formation of long lasting memories. There are some drugs that have been shown to stimulate neurogenesis in animal models, but then again so does physical excercise, which is probably preferable.
Too much stress and not enough stress negatively impact the formation of some memories.
Thanks, xSP :)
QuoteToo much stress and not enough stress negatively impact the formation of some memories.
Hmm, something to think about there (if I remember to do so . . .)
Quote from: Gloucester on February 06, 2017, 08:39:43 AM
XSP, if you continue your interest in memory and happen to find a good source of capacity I am in tbe market for some . . .
I'll take whatever's left over ;-)
Hermes - would love to see some of your artwork!
I liked making video games when I was a kid. One of my brothers and I decided to specialize, so I started focusing on graphics and he on programming. Then it turned out that we weren't very motivated or disciplined. So I decided that I should learn how to program so that I could do the programming and graphics. Then during college, I figured that I better find a way to pay off that school debt as well as being able to feed myself, so I just went for a regular programming career while planning to make games on the side.
That didn't work out very well, until the last few years, when I finally started actually following my plan by actually working on developing games.
Quote from: joeactor on February 06, 2017, 02:48:52 PM
Quote from: Gloucester on February 06, 2017, 08:39:43 AM
XSP, if you continue your interest in memory and happen to find a good source of capacity I am in tbe market for some . . .
I'll take whatever's left over ;-)
Hermes - would love to see some of your artwork!
Thank you, I will post some examples, but I need a few days to sort out some stuff.
I love threads like this, where I get to know you guys so much better. I love peoples' stories.
I think I had a choice, but my nature also led me a certain direction, which I was happy with for many years. I had moved to Colorado Springs as a newly married girl of barely 20. Only a year of college under my belt, and a lot of time spent working at a gas station (A job that I loved). So with no skills really to speak of, I started my job search, and just when I was feeling quite worthless to society, a wonderful dentist offered to train me as a dental assistant. I jumped at that chance, and it turns out, I was really, really good at that job. The small details, the need to be prepared, the desire to help, and my nurturing nature were all satisfied by this job.
I did this until I started having babies, 10 years later. Then I was a mom for about 10 years. Now, I'm still a mom, but I own a cleaning business, focusing on senior-age peoples' homes and upscale apartments--a job that plays into my need for flexibility and my serious attention to small details (some would call it anal-retentive or OCD :) )
It's fun to charter an accountant
And sail the wide accountancy,
To find, explore the funds offshore
And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy!
I hope you all realise it hurts every time you use the term "accountant's solution" derogatively.
I bet you'd all fawn if a scientist had said the very same sensible thing.
Quote from: Bad Penny II on February 08, 2017, 01:06:30 PM
It's fun to charter an accountant
And sail the wide accountancy,
To find, explore the funds offshore
And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy!
Very good, very good. :golfclap:
Just wanted to tip my hat to xSP and this thread, very interesting read so far.
:postoday:
Quote from: Father Bruno on February 10, 2017, 05:13:03 PM
Just wanted to tip my hat to xSP and this thread, very interesting read so far.
:postoday:
:grin:
Hm... Don't know if I can really post since I'm still a student. But it is really strange the way I ended up back in school this time around. The TC question of "Did you feel you had a choice?" just kind of made me have to respond.
I'm studying to be a musicologist (Study of Music, Music History). What got me interested? That could be a long story. I realized in probably my sophomore year of high school that I was really interested in history. Around the same time I really started getting into classical music. Oddly enough what really got me there was my interest in the instruments themselves. Back in high school I was already thoroughly interested in the history of woodwind instruments. I read books on this. Note: I don't read books on much of anything. Lol.
But it would take a long time for me to actually connect those dots. In my first-time college years I was determined to be a band director. I felt like I should be a teacher, teaching music, because it was something I struggled with and I felt like maybe I could help those students who were struggling. I also would have loved to have been a marching band director. I came from a HUGE marching band high school. I even had show ideas in my head...
But then 2012/2013 happened. Medical issues, commuting, working, going for that degree. It did me in. But before I dropped out and gave up on everything forever, I noticed my affinity toward music history that no other music student in the whole program seemed to have. They hated those classes, so much. And here I was, going back in my textbook and reading for fun the sections that would be covered in other semesters.
But I didn't put too much thought into actually making a degree out of this. For a large variety of personal reasons, I felt like I shouldn't go back ever.
The story of what happened beyond this point is personal. It's very strange. I really want to share it, but I'm afraid doing so could potentially out myself if any of those individuals somehow stumbled across this website. There's no way this story could be mistaken for anyone but me... One of the individuals in the story is extremely religious and I would be scared to see what would happen if she found out. I don't want to lose her.
But it is a very strange, amazing story. The very reason I wanted to respond to this topic, because it felt entirely like "fate", something straight out of fiction. If anyone wants to hear it, just tell me and I can PM it. I don't want to be too public with sharing it.
My profession is fascinating and versatile. I chose it because it opened so many doors - some of which I was not even aware of, and one of which I stepped through. Never looked back.
Did I have choices? Yes, absolutely. I dabbled with project management for a while, then started studying cybernetics and systems engineering. I also did some work in retail, was a mediocre phone salesman and a generalist in the farming industry. I could have gone into law or journalism or tried my hand at full-time for-profit fiction writing. Or I could have gone into professional science. I think I may even have been good at it - very good, in fact. I had plenty of choices, each with its own ups and downs, it's own rewards and sacrifices to be made.
I did not choose the easiest or the most obvious of routes, took my time not choosing it, and I did take my punches for it. For instance, this year is the first one since "forever," where my combined assets exceed my combined loans. I'm thirty-fucking-two. But, and this is an important one, I am where I want to be and I'm heading roughly in the direction I want to be heading in.
Is my job what I imagined it would be when I embarked on the path of computer engineering? Not at all. Subjectively, I like this more than what I imagined myself doing. I have challenges and responsibilities and great colleagues and a lot of fun and a lot of frustration and working weekends and a sense of moving forward or, at least, of never standing still and it's... Great.
It's been a long, strange trip... And it still is.
Quote from: Harmonie on February 11, 2017, 02:43:25 AM
Hm... Don't know if I can really post since I'm still a student. But it is really strange the way I ended up back in school this time around. The TC question of "Did you feel you had a choice?" just kind of made me have to respond.
I'm studying to be a musicologist (Study of Music, Music History). What got me interested? That could be a long story. I realized in probably my sophomore year of high school that I was really interested in history. Around the same time I really started getting into classical music. Oddly enough what really got me there was my interest in the instruments themselves. Back in high school I was already thoroughly interested in the history of woodwind instruments. I read books on this. Note: I don't read books on much of anything. Lol.
But it would take a long time for me to actually connect those dots. In my first-time college years I was determined to be a band director. I felt like I should be a teacher, teaching music, because it was something I struggled with and I felt like maybe I could help those students who were struggling. I also would have loved to have been a marching band director. I came from a HUGE marching band high school. I even had show ideas in my head...
SO after you graduate, what kinds of careers will be open to you? Teaching? Research? Directing?
Quote from: Dragonia on February 11, 2017, 03:22:40 PM
Quote from: Harmonie on February 11, 2017, 02:43:25 AM
Hm... Don't know if I can really post since I'm still a student. But it is really strange the way I ended up back in school this time around. The TC question of "Did you feel you had a choice?" just kind of made me have to respond.
I'm studying to be a musicologist (Study of Music, Music History). What got me interested? That could be a long story. I realized in probably my sophomore year of high school that I was really interested in history. Around the same time I really started getting into classical music. Oddly enough what really got me there was my interest in the instruments themselves. Back in high school I was already thoroughly interested in the history of woodwind instruments. I read books on this. Note: I don't read books on much of anything. Lol.
But it would take a long time for me to actually connect those dots. In my first-time college years I was determined to be a band director. I felt like I should be a teacher, teaching music, because it was something I struggled with and I felt like maybe I could help those students who were struggling. I also would have loved to have been a marching band director. I came from a HUGE marching band high school. I even had show ideas in my head...
SO after you graduate, what kinds of careers will be open to you? Teaching? Research? Directing?
Probably teaching and researching. Teaching at a college or university is my goal.