Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Career choices

I was looking at grad schools and I realized for the nth time that I have no idea what I want to do for a graduate degree.  I pushed away from the desk and sighed in disgust.

"What's wrong?"  I had forgotten he was there.  He was the new commanding officer on Turtle Island, probably about my age and not long out of college.  He has taken up the habit of coming to the visitor center where I live and playing Warcraft 3, sitting opposite to me at the visitor information desk where the internet is.  He never looked like a commanding officer to me.  Right now he's wearing a white t-shirt with its collar stretched out, and he usually walks around in flip flops and shorts, with a blue uniform jacket that looks like the high school gym uniforms in Taipei.

"I'm contemplating graduate school"

"Choosing schools?"

"No, a major."  I smile, embarrassed.  "Are you going to graduate school after this?"

"No, I'm a soldier."

"So this is... your work?"  Usually, Taiwanese males complete their compulsory military duty and get on with their lives.  I always got the impression that it was a brief but necessary obstacle, but it never occurred to me that being a soldier could be a job.

"My career," he affirmed.  Sensing my confusion, he explained: "I didn't know what else to do."



Maybe I should let myself get drafted, after all.

3 comments:

  1. you could wander the earth. the taiwanese dude doesnt have the benifit of an american passport. plus, you being a rough and tumble outdoorsy type can probably hack low budget earth wandering as well.

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  2. haha i always said they choose to enter the military whenever they don't know what to do next. You on the other hand should study Library Science.

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  3. Could you post a vistor center pictures? I'm curious how it looks like with the internet access.

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