I'm a PhD student, and I'll confess that I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

[Writer]

I know what TYPE of work I'm looking for (independent, innovative, and politically active), and I know my range of interests (research, politics, and media studies), and I know that my butt is firmly chained to the Mountain West...

so now what?

I don't know what color my parachute is. This is sad.

Structured society - BITE ME!

[RandomThoughts]

1. Shrug. People have asked me that occasionally also.

I always worked really hard, but now just waiting for check owed from before for things done in material things.

And not worried about working.

I came to the conclusion that working would be insane when I have not been paid for work a decade ago. Doing something over again expecting different results would not make sense.

Plus every time I was moving into work environment they kept asking me to do things like treat people bad, or respect people that were not better or worse and had not shown they earned respect. Although many people did earn respect, I found in the work world, the people that had moved up had done it by ways that were at best weird and did not make sense, and in some cases just dishonest or disingenuous.

So what do I want to do for work,

:shrug:

That question is out of sequence and can not thought on at this point.

(And in no way is that a request, that would assume someone has authority to make that decision.)

[Writer]

2. Working for others SUCKS for the reasons you list!

I wish I could work for myself.

[RandomThoughts]

3. It is nicer in thought, although what money does come in material form

I pretty much give away, or spend in ways to put back into the system. I did get some money for awhile, but in small parts it has no effect on my situation so ignored it.

As far as working for myself, heh, not sure it can be called that especially in material terms, since I don't sell or buy anything, nor get much money stuff, or when that does happen it is irrelevant, since has only been enough to have a few beers on a night out.

So really not working for myself either.

:shrug:

Not sure what I would think that is, or what others would, it is a bit odd, but makes sense. Spent many hours making sure it made sense, worked the material work issue for a long time before finding that conclusion.


There is another point, anyone that thinks they can decide material wealth in my situation by some system of exclusion or inclusion, I have no desire to be part of that system. Again that is a presumption.

[RandomThoughts]

18. I should say thoughts on material money are not bad, and are part of balance.

It is when you change your values for money, that things are bad, or when money is first above values. There are many people that have moderate, and even more then moderate material money that do not sell out their values to get it.

[Ptah]

4. Perhaps it might be better to be thinking of what you want to be doing, not what you will be.

How's the fiction coming?

Is there a scene wherein the heroine posts on a social
message board and finds a thought that solidifies her
future?

[Writer]

5. No, an upcoming trip and the perils of air travel distract the heroine.

After the airline swindled her for hundreds of dollars, she burns some of her scant time to write a letter to the Department of Transportation excoriating the wretched airline.

Distracted and anxious, and having just returned from a meeting on campus, she attempts to rest her tired body before the computer. But, alas, her mind wanders to more esoteric matters, and she ruminates on why the hell she exists in her current form, if not to serve as the Bobo doll for anyone seeking to pound flesh.

Seeking empathy, she posts on a social message board in a pathetic search for a thought that solidifies not only her future, but her existential certitude.


Sucky, I know.

[rug]

6. Not even Lifetime will option this.

[Writer]

10. The Oxygen Network, perhaps.

[styersc]

7. Landscaping is a rewarding job. So is food service.

Gotta eat.

[Writer]

17. Food for thought. Yes, indeed. n/t

[Ptah]

8. If you could add a chapter or two where the protaganist

Is somehow stranded on Pike's Peak (ala North by Northwest)
her peril might increase reader interest.

Also, what is she wearing?

[Writer]

9. A clingy, cropped top and denim cut-offs.

An Apollo-esque man with stallion hair climbs a rope to rescue her.

[Ptah]

13. Ah shoot. I was hoping she would be one of those that saves herself.

And she saves the Apollo-esque man with stallion hair.

:cry:

[Writer]

15. She leaps from the top of Pike's Peak, landing on the Apollo-esque man's back.

She clasps her man-mount's raging hair as he gallops down the hardened, granite slab to a soft, tender meadow below.

[Ptah]

23. I understand she has a long-haired, horse-like lover.

The interesting part is what she does on her own.

[mopinko]

11. don't feel bad

i am 55 and i guess i am stuck being an artist, because i am too old and infirm to start over. but that doesn't stop me from thinking about other schemes.
what will i be when i grow up? dead.

[Writer]

16. Yeah, I'm not dead, but I'm working on it.

I'm sure I've reached my atomic half-life by now.

[aikoaiko]

12. What discipline?

Stay in the academy. Its a hoot.

[Writer]

14. What discipline? Corporal.

;)

Seriously, I would prefer to have one foot in academia and one foot out.

[aikoaiko]

19. Get into the right school and right department and your wish can be made true.

:hi:

[Writer]

20. I appreciate the encouragement, thank you.

However, the right school and the right department will have to be within 50 miles of my current residence. Or something like that.

But thanks! :hi:

[aikoaiko]

21. Good luck.

Being geographically bound is always tough for the new Ph.D.

[Richard Steele]

22. I'm 41 years old. When I grow up, I want to be Miaowara Shiro.

You are already grown up.
Stop WANTING to be something, and start paying attention
to what you ARE right now.

The FUTURE is always at least a second away- we can only ever live in the PRESENT.
It goes by so fast- if you blink, you'll miss it.

Don't blink.

[JCMach1]

24. I am a 43yo University Administrator and I still don't know!

I don't let that stop me though...

Although probably a gardener, poet and cat care-taker... however, those don't pay so well.