Note to Earlier Self

When I was in high school it never occurred to me that I'd one day be grown up and having to work for a living. Oh, I guess I knew, but it either never concerned me nor did it seem actual. To my shame, it still doesn't, but if I could go back to those days and change one thing that may very well be it. I'd pick a profession and work toward it.

Sometime around age seventeen I took some counseling course which I believe was to prepare me for life outside high school. The only thing I remember about it was taking one of those proficiency-type tests, and the only question on that test I remember had to do with toothpaste. I don't recall all the options, but I think I chose the one that said I'd like develop new ones.

Now that I'm at this point in life I have a better idea. I have no idea what they do and have never met one in my life, but instead of parroting my eight year old decision to be a "fighter pilot" I think I would have enjoyed being a metallurgist.

First, it has to be one of the earlier professions. I could be a proud member of the fraternity of those who took us out of the copper age. With some five thousand years of history behind me, I could feel confident that I hadn't picked a fad.

While I can't imagine many freelance metallurgists, I guess I'd have to work for US Steel or Alcoa or someone, but even so filling my days with coming up with exotic metals and testing them would have to beat working in an office. Each week I'd start with a checklist indicating what to mix with titanium or boron, and if I were lucky I could eventually concoct some combination of metals and forging that could bear my name for eternity. "How about adding some selenium and cooking it for a bit?" "Nope, too brittle." "I'll try adding some mercury tomorrow."

No, not a new element, just a new metal.

(If you're interested, the high school test indicated I should be a cosmetician in a mortuary.)