The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!
It’s June already, and many people in the UK (and I’m sure other countries as well!) are doing end-of-year exams, which made this topic jump out to me. Over in the forum, Miriam (Facella) suggested we ask about what people’s dream jobs might be. If money, skills, education, etc, didn’t matter (e.g. you could magically become qualified), what would you like to work as?
What would you like to do if you could do anything?
Whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never really knew how to answer, and I guess I still don’t. I’m basically a perpetual student. I started out in English literature, then moved into science, and am currently trying to finish up my MSc in infectious diseases, via distance learning. Next year will be my last year, and then… Well, then most likely I’ll take a break for a year or two, and then study something new.
It’s not that I don’t love the subject—I’ve loved many subjects! And it’s not that I haven’t been good at the subjects I have studied. I just thrive best when I’m learning new things. So if I could get paid to do that, to just accumulate knowledge, that’d be really nice. But if we’re being more realistic, then the actual job I’m most interested in is science communication. It’d weld together a lot of the skills I do have: communication, research, and the ability to understand the science. (As long as it’s biology or closely related, anyway.) Something like writing for New Scientist would be very cool—or writing books like the Object Lessons series or Bloomsbury Sigma…
Anyway, that’s enough daydreaming from me—what about you? What would you do, if you could snap your fingers and make it happen now? We’d love to hear from you in the comments, but you can also write about that on the postcards you write this month!