I Don’t Know…

Hey y’all,

I’m going to begin this post by saying that I’ve been drinking. So I don’t know what this post is going to turn into.

-Let me also mention the obvious. This blog does not have a single, set direction. It is simply a very public display of what I am doing and thinking at the moment. It’s basically an online journal. So, yes, it is extremely windy and sporadic and a little bipolar. That’s how life is. All things change. That’s the only constant to anything. –

I’ve gone down a rabbit hole this evening and ended up taking a personal skills test online. I wanted to see if there was anything that I was good at that I didn’t know about that I could cultivate. I took a couple skills assessments in high school, but that’s been nearly a decade ago. I decided to see what, if anything, had changed. So I went online, and the results of my test shocked me… at first.

The top seven results for potential careers for me had to do with history and anthropology! No.2 said I would make a good Curator (which is something like the head of a museum department – I’m not quite sure on that, though). But all the others in the list were some form of “career in archaeology or anthropology.”

At first, this really stunned me. Back in school, my skills assessment suggested that I work in the medical field. This was so different that it boggled me for a minute. Then I thought about it. I actually dreaded hearing about the medical field, because, although I was very good at science and math, I had no passion for them. I would rather listen and learn from stories all day. Because of that, I’ve tried several times to write a novel (and even short stories), but they always end up being too concise and void of emotion.

As a child, I remember being so inquisitive about ancient Cherokee life that I ended up with an inch thick file folder in my bookshelf of pages upon pages of facts about Cherokee life. This followed me throughout the years, because in school, I did several assignments having to do with various aspects of historical life. I also enjoy reading historical books, both fiction and non. And I love learning about historical societies and culture.

Maybe it’s not such a crazy idea for me to get into anthropology. There’s only one problem. To get a job job in this field, I would need a postsecondary degree. Curators typically only need a Master’s, but other anthropology jobs require a Doctorate. I haven’t even completed my Bachelor’s degree yet, and I don’t plan to. I can’t drive, and there are no jobs in the field of anthropology (to my knowledge) within two hours of where I live. I am absolutely not going to go back to school, go into debt, go through even more school, move hours away (which would mean uprooting my entire family), find a location, and secure transport, just to procure a job… But I think there’s another solution.

Remember how I said earlier that I was good at writing and that I had tried to write several times? Well, what if I try to write something anthropology-related? I never got the hang of fiction writing because I didn’t focus on emotion enough, and I was far too concise. But that’s what anthropology is! It’s to the point and no one worried about emotion. No one cares how a particular warrior was feeling after battle. People just want to know the facts about warriors in general. What did they wear? How did they fight? How did they celebrate a victory? I can do facts. Facts are simple. I can list facts out all day.

I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do about all this. I can guarantee though that I will fail at the first few things I try. But I still think that doing something with this is a good idea.

Who knows? There are those historically accurate channels on YouTube that are pretty awesome. That may be something I try. One of the many.

Alright, that’s enough mostly coherent speech for the evening. Good night.