Roads Traveled.

On Wednesdays I sometimes run a series called "Mid Week At Work".

Two items on that.

One is that the current issue of Wyoming Wildlife is really about wildlife and outdoor oriented careers.

I seriously considered that at one time.  I guess a lot of people have.  I know at least one other lawyer who has my exact same career path. . . wanted to be a game warden. . . studied geology instead. . . has military experience dating back to right when he was out of high school, ended up a lawyer.

Well, like the Grateful Dead used to sing, "what a long strange trip its been".

Except it doesn't seem all that long.

What also doesn't take along at all is to a career path to really set in.  You start one direction, you dip your toe in the water, and 30 years later, that's your career and its almost complete.  People like to celebrate those who radically start over, but the story of people having economic collapses or forced early retirements is actually much more common.  

I know of (not know, but know of) one lawyer who attempted to start over as a film maker.  Didn't work.  I also know one who went to Rabbinical school.  He might be a Rabbi back east now, but I also think he's practicing law back east also.  One lawyer I know who dropped out to become a farmer dropped back in and became a Federal magistrate.  At some point, careers sort of stick.

Anyhow, for those young enough, worth reading.  Indeed, I'm often struck by the fact that we tend not to know what all is available out there until years later.  How would we?

Secondly, as I was traveling yesterday I was listening to Pritzker Military History podcasts on the way back and heard an interview of a well known historian.  The interviewer, another historian, asked him how he had found his career.

He related that he first became interested in history in that sense as a small child and expressed an interest in following it into college by high school. As he was living in a small town, the normal reaction was "but what will you do with it?".  A history professor in high school encouraged him to follow it simply because he'd enjoy it. That's what he'd do with it, was the reply.  

He followed it and became a distinguished military historian.

That's also bold advice.  I don't know that I'd give that advice to anyone, but then maybe its really good advice too. 

I didn't receive any advice in high school, from anyone.  I didn't ask for any either.  I didn't know who to ask for one thing.  And high school career guidance was a bit of a joke back at that time, where I lived.  Hopefully its better now.

I did get some advice from my father, as I noted here before, but that was merely as a comment.  Not real advance, but a studied observation.  It wasn't until junior college that I got any advice, and I ended up following it.