May 13, 2003
Man Of The People Part Two
I responded to a posting on Craig's List for volunteers to talk to school kids about the kinds of work that are available in the world. Perhaps this is how kids get screwed up...having someone who technically ain't doing a whole hell of a lot of actual work going in to give career advice. To be fair, I could in all honesty go in and discuss the odd career I have had, and how you don't really need to have your whole life planned in order to have a life. I am the first person anywhere in the family tree to get a college degree, and I am a second generation immigrant, and I am the first person in my family to have a career void of heavy lifting. I was never 'most likely to succeed'.
I spoke to two classes. The first wanted to talk about what white boys are like in Iowa. I always give a crowd what they want, so I did, but, I had to cut that short and get back to the fact that it is career day dammit!! They loved the part where I told them how I went from oldies DJ to ad writer to analyst waltzing around the world. They didn't groove on my whole line on "do what your heart tells you to do".
The second class lapped that up. They loved talking about books and writing and figuring out if people actually get paid to write about stuff they kinda liked, or indeed, loved. They really seemed shocked to hear that the answer is 'yes'. They too liked the radio part of the story. I can still break into pukey radio voice easily, and I could see the lightbulb go off with a few of them as they realized that no one really talks like that...that it is actually just some assclown in a small room yelling to themselves about Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.
That alone made the trip so far uptown worth it.
One postscript is that one kid asked if I had ever been arrested. That was tough. I have, so I said yes, but I didn't say "yes, several times". I didn't want to explain my open container summons, so I told of the time when I was a youngin' I was picked up by the police for going into the quarry behind my house. He paid attention after that. People funny.
Posted by rudayday at May 13, 2003 02:34 PM
I responded to a posting on Craig's List for volunteers to talk to school kids about the kinds of work that are available in the world. Perhaps this is how kids get screwed up...having someone who technically ain't doing a whole hell of a lot of actual work going in to give career advice. To be fair, I could in all honesty go in and discuss the odd career I have had, and how you don't really need to have your whole life planned in order to have a life. I am the first person anywhere in the family tree to get a college degree, and I am a second generation immigrant, and I am the first person in my family to have a career void of heavy lifting. I was never 'most likely to succeed'.
I spoke to two classes. The first wanted to talk about what white boys are like in Iowa. I always give a crowd what they want, so I did, but, I had to cut that short and get back to the fact that it is career day dammit!! They loved the part where I told them how I went from oldies DJ to ad writer to analyst waltzing around the world. They didn't groove on my whole line on "do what your heart tells you to do".
The second class lapped that up. They loved talking about books and writing and figuring out if people actually get paid to write about stuff they kinda liked, or indeed, loved. They really seemed shocked to hear that the answer is 'yes'. They too liked the radio part of the story. I can still break into pukey radio voice easily, and I could see the lightbulb go off with a few of them as they realized that no one really talks like that...that it is actually just some assclown in a small room yelling to themselves about Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.
That alone made the trip so far uptown worth it.
One postscript is that one kid asked if I had ever been arrested. That was tough. I have, so I said yes, but I didn't say "yes, several times". I didn't want to explain my open container summons, so I told of the time when I was a youngin' I was picked up by the police for going into the quarry behind my house. He paid attention after that. People funny.
Posted by rudayday at May 13, 2003 02:34 PM