I had a touchy, feely assignment from a class I really didn’t need in the first place. My freshman orientation class at Georgia Southern University was requiring that I take a test to tell me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I could conceive of no other greater waste of time.
Assessment tests of this nature were for people who didn’t know what they wanted to do. In my mind making me take this test was about as ridiculous as making me take a test to tell me what type of learner I was (That happened to be the next week). I was already set on computer engineering and thought if that didn’t work out, there would always be another computer related major to try. I regarded these tests as a torture that should be reserved for party-going clowns who skate through college for 3 years labelled as undeclared.
I was working like a dog to keep up in Calculus and my Chemistry professor at the time was notorious for burying students with his ruthless tests. Dr. Hurst had achieved an alternate designation, Dr. Hurse.
In the midst of all my class induced anxiety, I marched down to Student Services to complete my task. In order to get credit for my class, I had to bring in the official print out produced at the end of the test. A hired student sat me down in front of an old computer terminal. Its greenish cursor blinked at me as the student assistant typed in some commands to get me started.
I truly did try my best to answer each question. Some questions seemed to repeat themselves. All the questions were along the lines of, “If you were a flower,” or “In your spare time,” or “How do you feel.” I pushed through it and finally after 30 minutes of continuous questions the dot matrix printer on the other side of the room was humming.
The student assistant handed me the paper and I was out the door. As I hastily crossed campus, I read the block letters below:
I laughed on and off for several days but now I see that these tendencies have crept into my life over the years. Although I still design and prototype stuff using my engineering background, my main career is in adult education. I design classes and entertain students. I married an actress/liberal arts person. I play several musical instruments. I run a blog just to give me a creative outlet. My hippie tendencies, ideas, and ideals are many.
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I would have heeded the list above 12 years ago. I picture a world where I’m on Broadway performing or drawing a barn for a children’s book. I imagine my skinny frame in a leotard skipping across stage choreographing the latest pop-idol video. Then at the thought of this last possibility, I throw up in my mouth a little and get back to work.