Major Decision

So at church I and three other women are in charge of all the kids during Sunday School. A week ago I taught them a lesson about how God helps us find our path in life. I told them a story about how I knew what I should study when I got to college.

So that got me thinking about my various career choices through the years. Some of which I thought you might all enjoy.

When I was about six-years-old, my cousin John, who is three years older than me, really loved airplanes. He had models strung up all over his room, and he was convinced he was going to be a pilot.

I thought this was so cool, so I decided that along with a ballerina, gymnast, and 3 other things that are escaping me (I remember there were 6 in total), I was going to be a flower girl. Now I'm not sure where I got this idea, but I was going to be the one that gave him a bouquet of flowers when he got home from his fighter pilot missions. That's a promising career right there. All that public education being put to good use.

Fast forward two years. I've given up the flower girl career path but haven't ruled out the other 5 options. My parents took us camping on Mount Lassen, and we attended a ranger program on Volcanology. Now before you jump over to Wikipedia, volcanology has nothing to do with Star Trek (though with my adolescent Star Wars obsession, many people wondered). It's the study of volcanoes. Something about those slides of lava flows and plugs flashing on a screen under the night sky while sitting on the sloping side of a dormant volcano spoke to my 8-year-old heart, and I was hooked.

For eight years, that's what I wanted to do. Now, looking back on it, I don't know if it was because it really did fascinate me, or if it was because it was different and I enjoyed the sideways looks I got when I told people my chosen career path. Because, let's face it--my ballet-dancing, theater-rehearsing, indoor schedule didn't seem to mesh with the adventurous, lava measuring, volcano hiking persona of a volcanologist.

I think I just liked that no one but me could define it.

At 16, I changed my mind. I took high school biology and fell in love with genetics. And then archaeo-genetics...yet another one no one could define. But it was very cool. I mean, what's not cool about using genetics to identify really really old dead stuff?

Then I got accepted to BYU. I remember going to something at BYU before I started, and saying I was double-majoring in Archaeology and Arabic and minoring in Acting. Right....

But that's what I started as. I nixed the Arabic for Hebrew, and started my Archaeology courses, hoping to become a Biblical archaeologist.

Okay. Let's look at this logically. 4 years of undergrad. Lots of travel to the Middle East. Then at least 4 more years of a doctorate degree and after that, constant travel around the world. Yeah, that totally sounds like me. And for those of you who don't know me, that was meant to be sarcastic.

And after all that, I ended up with a degree in Creative Writing.

And now I stay home with a 2-year-old.

Could life get any better?