Real professions my dad has suggested I join
- Pilot. I forget when he first mentioned this one, but he’s brought it up several times over the years.
- Flight Dispatcher. This is what my dad does. One day he was talking about all the “young kids” (early 30’s) coming into the office and asked why I don’t become one of them.
- VHS to DVD Store Operator. One day while I was in Texas he saved a newspaper article he read and wanted to show me. It was about a guy who opened a shop that accepted your old home movies on VHS and converted and burned them to DVD’s. After his synopsis of what the article was about when he was handing it to me to read, he said I should look into doing that and open a store myself. Ya, that sounds fun. Not. He didn’t understand the sarcasm.
- Construction Worker. My dads first son in Florida frames houses. Since middle school my dad has wanted me to go down there for a summer and “hammer nails” with him. Despite never showing any interest in tools and being terribly bored with geometry and math, my dad has always thought this would be a great career choice for me.
- Contractor. Pretty much the same circumstances as above, just in different contexts
- CPAP Parts Salesman. A PAP (positive airway pressure) machine is something people like my dad hook onto their face at night that forces them to breathe so they don’t snore, don’t die, and get restful, quality sleep. When my dad had trouble finding a part for his machine, he suggested I sell them. “Why don’t you do that?” he said. “You could make a lot of money selling these things”.
- Doctor or Lawyer. While trying for more than the 30th time to explain my business model to him and being met with clear disinterest, I stopped the explanation and asked what besides this does he think I would be successful at and enjoy? His response: “I don’t know. Doctor? Lawyer?”. He was 100% serious…
- Cable News Pundit/Commentary Anchor. While watching one of the pundit shows on Fox (I forget which), my dad asks to me in the kitchen “why don’t you go be one of those guys? You could do that. But you gotta go to college or no one’s gonna care what you think”. I considered mentioning that the nations most listened to talk show on radio (Limbaugh) didn’t go to college and millions a day “care what he thinks”, but decided against it since he wouldn’t understand the point being made.Border Patrol Agent. This weekend (January 10th 08) while in San Diego for my cousins wedding, we’re in the hotel and a recruitment commercial for border patrol agents airs on the tv box, so you could count the seconds before the inevitable “why don’t you do that?” I usually don’t respond to these things, but I did this time and asked “Dad, what makes you possibly think I would want to be a border patrol agent?”
- Air Marshal. Same day as the border agent incident, an hour or two later while at breakfast with my aunt and uncle. Air marshals came up in conversation as we wondered out loud how many flights have marshals on them and my dad again says “why don’t you be one a them?” My answer was the same as earlier: “okay dad. I’ll look into being an air marshal”….
*****
I ‘ll continue to update this list as it progresses…
Tags: Dad, Job, Richards Dad, Work