What would you do, if not this?
I’m unemployed. Still. So the question asked this week has a certain bitterness to it:
If you weren’t doing what you do today, what other job would you have?
Clearly what I’m doing today is nothing, but the question doesn’t presuppose that you are a professional writer—nor is it asking for a wishful answer of what you would like to be doing.
So let’s suppose I had no interest in writing since, in my unpaid moments (which are many), that is what I currently do. What would I be doing?
I could have stuck with law. I could have completed my PhD and become an academic, teaching international law and doing research into war crimes.
Stripping that back a stage, I could have stuck with my original plan, become a qualified solicitor and joined the Procurator Fiscal Service (the prosecution in the Scottish Legal System). That would have been a life confined to Scotland, focused on Glasgow and Edinburgh.
But I became dissatisfied with law, and have recently been trying to find out what I actually wanted to do with my life, because law wasn’t something I wanted to do, but rather was something I could do, and there is a difference.
Prior to the law, things get fuzzy, and I find myself looking at the strange list of careers I “wanted” as a child. None of these answer the question of course, because most are unfeasible, and the ones that were feasible would have been discounted.
An astronaut. Luke Skywalker. An American footballer. Batman. A Ghostbuster. A Catholic priest. Incidentally, the latter career path was chosen as the only realistic means of becoming a Ghostbuster. I wanted to be a priest because I wanted to be an exorcist. And whilst I could never really be considered suitable for the priesthood, part of me thinks the Catholic Church is infinitely poorer for my not becoming Pope…
But I do recall when I was perhaps 12 or 13, there was something I wanted to do. I wanted to work on bionic engineering and robotics. Pretty sci-fi sounding, as outrageous as my other choices. But I wanted to make exoskeletons. I wanted to make artificial limbs. I wanted to make a device that could be attached to paraplegics and quadraplegics that could allow them to stand and walk.
An astronaut helps advance science. Luke Skywalker helped save the galaxy. A footballer helps his team. Batman helps the victims of injustice. Ghostbusters help the frightened. Priests bring spiritual help to their parishioners. Lawyers help their clients. And the bionic devices I dreamt were to help the injured regain mobility.
I don’t know what I’d be doing today if I didn’t want to write. But I can see what I’d be striving for.
Doing something good. Making a difference. And if that’s all we do in our lives, then I think that’s been a life worth living.
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I am a draftsman by trade, but now that I find my employer on the verge of closing and having the prospect of becoming unemployed for the second time in three years has become very real to me, I have decided it’s time to go back to school and pursue my lifelong passion for cooking. I have enrolled in the culinary arts program at the college I attended so many years ago, which coincidentally, Chef was just recently named top culinary arts instructor in all of Georgia. That’s my plan. I will go back to school – I still have to figure out how on earth I’m going to pay my share of the bills – further build on my culinary talents, and upon graduation open the restaurant I have longed to open the vast majority of my life.
So yeah. If I wasn’t drafting, and I probably won’t be soon, I would be filling peoples’ bellies with the creations from my kitchen and sending them on their ways with smiles on their faces … and empty wallets.
Like John, I am a draftsman by trade. Drafting was a career change that I underwent roughly 5 years ago. I was working day after day as a cabinetmaker. I worked in a shop that was very small (~5 employees on average) which meant that I had lots of freedom and had to wear many of the proverbial job hats. One day I was machining rough lumber, the next I was building casework, next I was finishing, then I might be working on a downed piece of machinery. I loved the flexibility in my job and decided to extend it even further by learning to draft the furniture that I spent years building.
Working full time and spending 5 hours per night in school was taxing. Before gaining my associates degree in Architectural Drafting and Design, I decided to move on from my cabinetmaking position. It was a tough choice and going from physical labor to sitting behind a desk was difficult. Once I was settled, I found that I loved drafting.
I took a position in a Millwork Shop so that I could leverage my years of building furniture. With only 1 other draftsman in the office, I love what I do. Jut like my previous position, I wear many hats and do everything from drafting to occasionally getting out into the shop to operate our CNC Router.
If I were to have to move on, which is a good possibility in this economy (I was laid off for almost 2 months last year), I’m not completely sure what I would do. I would *like* to find a position in the cigar industry. I am very fond of the hobby and have invested time over the past four-years to a cigar review site. I’ll be flying to an annual cigar convention, to do press coverage, for the third time. I’ve met some awesome people and I think that I would enjoy some sort of profession involving cigars. Being a sales rep is something I have no interest in. I want to be able to spend time with my new daughter, the reps I’ve met are on the road too often for my liking.
Perhaps I could even combine two hobbies and write a book on cigars. It is something that has crossed my mind on more than one occasion.
With “rock star” being an idea no longer with merit, although I still enjoy playing drums whenever I can, I relish my job as a high school English teacher. The idea of being a full time writer appeals, perhaps for a music magazine, or novelist, is one that is appearing on the radar. I have seriously considered a religious vocation, and have done some study, which is currently on hold.
Teaching is something good, something that makes a difference. When your student “gets it,” you certainly smile. I can’t really see myself doing anything other than teaching.
And Paul, I’d vote for you for Pope.
I’m a fulltime mother atm, but if I wasn’t doing that I’d probably be in academia and lecturing. I quit a phd to be home with my firstborn. I also have always loved editing, and I am trying to get some qualifications in that area. Back before that I wanted to be a musician (started out doing a BMus in flute), before that a psychologist, and before that marine biologist rated pretty highly (until I realised I was a bad swimmer and was scared of swimming in the ocean!)
Technically speaking, it IS possible to become a Ghostbuster, if you do a degree in psychology, and then the specialist postgrad course in parapsychology. I wish I’d known about this before I went down the Film Studies route.
But don’t forget that, as a writer, you ARE helping people. Stick at it, pet.
I feel like such an old timer and drifter. Been and done so many jobs and pursued different careers – none for any longer than 4 years at a stint ( boy did I feel stale after that one….)
hummm what would I be doing if I wasn’t doing this? ( *unrolls list*) eini meeni miney mo……
lets just wait and see.. I’m loving the flexibility of writing, teaching and at home mum….