Navy guy might have been a career route that I could have taken in my life. After I graduated from high school I could have looked into joining the Navy. It was 1969 and Vietnam was going full guns and other deadly devices. Since my father was in the Navy during World War II it might seem logical for me to follow the tradition--that is if I'd come from a military type family. But my father was mostly recruited to play basketball on the Navy team. He wasn't much of a sailor, but he was good enough of a basketball player to make the Navy want him on their team. Sounds like a nice way to serve military time.
My second wife became a nurse after our decade of being in show business together. I heard her stories and those of other nurses who told their stories and I'm pretty sure I would not be good at nursing. I guess a nurse gets used to the gross stuff and other weird stuff, but I don't know how I would be doing that occupation. Sure, I could have been a nurse, but not. No, not me. But don't let me knock the nursing profession. We need them and it's a great career move for young people looking for their life's work.
Though now maybe more dream than reality, being a newspaper writer was long a dream profession in my younger days. From the time I could read I was always fascinated with newspapers and the wonderful array of information and entertainment those pages contained. My paternal grandfather had worked for a newspaper, but he was mostly a printer, though he did write some pieces for the paper at times or so I heard. I never met him since he died several years before I was born.
Novelist is more like it for me. I've long aspired to be a novelist. I've done some work on a few novels but haven't actually followed any through to completion. Maybe someday I'll get a novel published. Or something published. Or maybe not. But never say never as they sometimes say.
Would you be good at a care job like nursing? Did you like to read newspapers in your younger days or even now? Have you achieved the dream of publishing your own novel?
I think I would be good at caregiving, as I did it for my ailing mom before she passed, but I don't think I'd be a good long-term nurse. Medical professionals need tough hearts to deal with the sickness and death all the time and I'm just not sure I could handle the emotional parts of the job. I did read newspapers in part during various stages of my life, and now I still flip through the local free paper that comes in the mail from time to time just to have the nostalgic feeling of holding/reading an actual newspaper again. I have published novels under pen names and have ghostwritten many novels for others as well.
ReplyDeleteTorie, there is a magic to a newspaper, but maybe only to those of us who grew up with them. I don't think that younger generations care about tangible items as much as they do digital.
DeleteLee
I worked in the production room of a newspaper for almost five years. My duties included proofreading, editing, writing, and researching articles. My most memorable moment was probably when I forgot to dial 1 before making an out of area call while researching a big article on the 2008 presidential candidates, and got a very angry woman who thought I was a crank caller, cursed me out, and actually said "Tell this John McCain person to take my number off his website." Senator McCain's interns were very nice and cooperative when I got the real number.
ReplyDeleteI applaud nurses and all they have to deal with but I could never be a nurse. I counsel in budgeting but it is amazing how many open up to me with their issues. I enjoy hearing about people's lives because we are, overall, interesting.
ReplyDeleteI would read some papers but never all the way through and now they are so thin because people get everything off the internet.
I'd like to write my mom's biography one day..I keep saying that but haven't started yet.