Tuesday, November 3

What did you think was the coolest job in the world when you were younger? Do you still feel that way now?

Wednesday, November 4

When you were a kid, did you want to have the same job or a different job than your parents when you grew up?

My dad was a truck driver and my mom was a social worker. It was awesome that my dad went to work in jeans and cowboy boots. Sometimes I got to ride in the big smelly, rumbly truck. My dad was the Native Marlboro man. Pretty cool. There was nothing cool about my mom’s job. She worked for the Department of Public Social Services. It was sad – it was ridiculous – it was infuriating – it was pathetic. She retired early because it sucked.

When I was a kid I thought having a PhD would be the best gig ever. I wasn’t even sure what a PhD did but it seemed like smart, nerd-cool people with crazy hair and strange clothing choices all had doctorates. PhDs could talk about Proust and Shakespeare; they always had books with them; they knew how to do math with letters, numbers, and squiggly symbols; they drank coffee in rainy coffee shops around universities in Paris, London, and cities that have trees. I thought people who looked and acted like Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler were cool. I was a strange kid.