When I was in middle school I went into that moody phase and decided I wanted to go into forensics (as in, dead bodies). I held onto that one until the end of my junior year of college when my useless, self-absorbed academic counselor finally told me that the guy who was slated to teach the anatomy classes I wanted had retired three years earlier and the classes were still in the catalog just for show. I could have strangled him. I switched to history when I got back in the fall and basically told the biology and chemistry departments--I had been a biology major--they could take their research science and shove it.

After graduation, I worked as a kennel scrubber-then-veterinary assistant for four years. I was good at it, loved the animals, and considered going to school for an RVT (registered vet technician) degree but then realized I didn't want to spend my adult life at the mercy of small-business financial limitations (read: no benefits) and being treated like a moron and whipping-girl by clients because I wasn't a DVM. Besides, I loved my history degree. Don't laugh.

Next Monday I start as an "assistant" at a medical center historical archives. I think this probably means I'll spend my days shifting boxes and sticking acid-free paper in between old documents. However, I'm reviewing for GRE's in the hopes that I can get into an online program for a master's in library science/photo archiving.

What would I LIKE to be? I'd be a musician if I had the talent/self-promotional inclinations (preferably a fiddler, which will make you laugh if you've ever heard me try to play). My friend and I would like to have our own show in PBS where we travel all over the U.S. visiting interesting sites and showing people how to do things. I'd like to get paid to travel and write about the weird stuff I see.