...I don’t know who wrote it originally, and I don’t know why they “couldn’t” be these things. I’d prefer to be saying, “If I were a doctor…” etc., since I could have been one...I've always been of the opinion that anyone could do pretty much anything they set their mind to, so I concur that a more "optimistic" statement would be "If I were an X, I'd do Y." However, looked at another way one might say the difference between "could be" and "were " is this: "Could be" denotes that wishful thinking - what if I could be anything I wanted? "Were" denotes what would have most likely happened had one followed that course in life,
e.g.
If I could be a professional athlete, I'd play short stop for the Braves.
If I were a professional athlete, I'd be an Olympic luger. (I was actually told by an Olympian when I was an early teen that I had the perfect body structure for it: medium hieght and skinny)
So the "could be" is the dream while the "were" is the missed (or not yet explored) opportunity. In the spirit of the original meme, I'll answer the "could be" side. Maybe another meme will start down the "were" (or "will be?") path.
If I could be a Scientist
I'd be a field paleontologist. Just like a lot of kids, dinosaurs always fascinated me. I'd love to be able to go out on digs, solving the puzzles of the fossils, adding knowledge to the world.
If I could be a Musician
A rocker, definitely. I was in a number of crappy garage bands in high school and college, but I never had the drive to actually do it for a living. If I could, I'd be hanging with Bono, Chris Martin, and Geddy Lee, playing gigs all over the world and helping Bob Geldof with Band Aid 20.
If I could be a Doctor
Mrs. P is a nurse in a GP's office, so I know a little about what this is like. And I definitely wouldn't be a GP. I'd much rather be on the research end of things - this overlaps with the Scientist answer above, I suppose. I'd like to imagine I'd end up at someplace like the CDC rather than a corporate R&D lab.
If I could be a Painter
Interesting. Hard to say - painting minis has been a geek hobby of mine for a long time, so I already am a painter by avocation. It would be fun to be able to do it for a living - it's quite a niche market, tho.
If I could be an Innkeeper
Easy. A little resort hotel on the Florida panhandle. My long-term goal is to retire down there, rent out a catamaran to the touristas, ogle bikini-clad women and be a dirty old man in general. Mrs. P fully supports this goal. I think.
And finally, I think the only thing I've disappointed my parents on has been not finishing college. One of these days....
So, tagging up: 1031, you're it. Rook, you too.
Oh, and Pam, let me know when you come into town. We should meet up and have a brew.
5 comments:
Are you sure I didn't miss the tag? I might have dove out of the way and smacked my head against a tree or something.
Give me a day or two to give it some thought.
And so far, what do you think, Cards and Braves in the NLCS?
I got a long reach, buddy. You're it. Take your time - hell, it took me a week just to see that Pam had tagged me.
The Braves are looking better as the season goes on, which is pretty much the norm for us. I think we'll start pulling away from everyone but Florida - it'll be a dogfight there. They've a good pitching staff and decent hitting so I can't say we'll put them down early.
The Cards are the offensive machine again this year, and already have what, a 10 or 15 game lead? :) Yeah, as long as we don't fuck up in the NLDS again, I'd put even money on Cards/Braves.
Personally, I think you just brushed my sleeve. I didn't feel a thing. But, since you are claiming a long reach, and I really have nothing better to do with my time, I have already written it up and will be publishing it shortly.
I am still working on whom to tag.
Pierce, Did I see some 40k figs in those pictures? Do we have a closet warhammer player running this site?
You probably thought you saw some 40K figs, but what you really saw were some 40K figs converted for use in our d20 Modern game. If you go back and read my very 1st post, I came out of the geek closet at the get-go.
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