LabSpaces is having another topic of the week/month/they just do this stuff sometimes, and invited other networks to participate! Sci is pleased at cross-network collaboration, and also liked this topic which is: What I’d be doing, if I wasn’t doing this.
Sci perfers to call it: My DayDream Job, the job you think you’d had or would have if you weren’t doing science.
And Sci’s got a LOT of them. A LOT. In my grad lab, we used to sit around and shoot the breeze, and we found that asking people what their DayDream Job would be is really a great way to get to know people. It’s more than just who they are on the job, it’s their underlying interests, hobbies, stuff like that. And also, some of it’s super cute and quirky. One post-doc wanted to be a pastry chef (AWESOME), another would have been an artist, another, who knows? Our lists changed from day to day, and often were just funny compilations of “DANGIT, this experiment sucks! I want to be a pastry chef!!!”
But Sci has her own list, both of the Real DayDream jobs (things which are more likely than not), and the Not Real DayDream jobs. Here are mine. What are yours?! Sci wants to know. What would you do if you weren’t doing science/medicine/your real job?
The Real Day Dream Jobs: the ones more likely to have happened.
1) A surgeon.
Sci found out pretty early on in her education that she LOVES blood and guts. Srsly. Anatomy is incredibly fascinating to me, and I love seeing where things go, how they are connected, and to watch the whole beautiful system function. It’s so stunningly mechanical, and yet so…squishy. And then Sci got into research in college and realized that she has really good, steady hands, and can do surgery for hours when she finally looks up, realizes her iPod playlist is over, and that she missed breakfast and lunch. So it’s a pretty good bet I’d have a good time as a surgeon.
2) A professor at a liberal arts college.
And I would wear a Tweed coat with leather elbow patches and it would be AWESOME. Actually, I am in the market for one of these anyway, tailored to fit a girl such as myself. Might have to alter it on my own though. Any ideas?
Sci has always wanted to teach. She has a talent for being entertaining, and who knows, might still end up some day inspiring some kids about science and causing other kids to yell on RateMyProfessor about how I actually expect them to WORK. I could teach SCIENCE! Or, I could teach my other love, and be the awesome tweed wearing professor teaching Symbolic Logic and Wittgenstein. Le sigh…
3) A Science Writer.
Duh. It’s something I love enough to do constantly as a hobby, and something I still work to improve. Who knows? Maybe if the funding gods fail to smile…
And now…
The Fun Day Dream Jobs: The ones I probably won’t end up in, but which would be totally AWESOME if I did.
1) Coffee Shop/Bookstore Owner
I love coffee. I love books. I love MAKING coffee. Sci spent a large amount of her formative years as a barista at a coffee shop, and did some management as well. I LOVED IT. I loved the smell of the coffee, I loved the morning rush, and I especially loved the people. I miss it now, and some day, maybe post-retirement (after I’ve made my millions a shill for Big Whatever, obviously), I’ll open up a tiny coffee nook with great lattes and wonderful BOOKS.
2) Costumer
Sci loves theater, and she loves being crafty. And she LOVES AWESOME CLOTHING. Clothing that could never in a million years be worn on the street. I am never so wowed as when I see some of the killer period costuming in Shakespeare plays (not just Shakespearean period either), and the time concepts that costumers work with in theater all the time are just AMAZING. In another life, it would have been SO COOL to sew bodices and oddly bustled skirts, to play with exotic cuts and strange color patterns. WOO IT WOULD BE SO FUN YOU GUYS.
So those are my DayDream jobs. What are yours? What do you think you’d likely be doing, and what would you just think was TOTALLY AWESOME?
