Choosing a Career

A philosopher by the name of Alan Watts once said that we shouldn't work for the sole purpose of making money. We should instead do what we love. See, making and saving money is done for the future. If this is all you think about, work becomes a means to an end. You forget all about the present and end up working your life away for some prospective future that never comes. If you do what you love, maybe you won't make money, but you will be happy doing it, and if you do it long enough you'll probably get really good at it and be able to find someone that'll pay you for it.
What I love to do is learn about Science and Nature. This is why I chose my major of Biology. I, perhaps dumbly, didn't think much about the future while obtaining my degree. But at least I enjoyed the process. I now find myself at the end of my college career, but without much means to get a good paying job. Nobody wants someone with just a Biology degree when there are all these other people getting Doctorates and medical certificates and further schooling. But the truth is, I don't want to be a scientist or doctor or nurse or really anything that actually applies biology to the real world. I only want to continue learning about all the miracles of life and existence from an abstract, theoretical point of view. They say the best way to learn something is to teach it. I am ready for that next level of biological consciousness. I want to see it through the eyes of young students and instill in them the same sense of wonder that I have developed.
Of course, that sounds a bit naive. I know how young teens can be. They'll play cool and make fun of me for trying to pursuade them that "learning is fun." But there are always a few kids that you can get through to, and if you spark the interest of just one mind in a whole class, so that they go on to do something great, or merely further their learning, then I think it would be well worth it.

I don't want the statement, "I don't want to... [do] anything that actually applies biology to the real world," to be taken too literally. I was making fun of myself in the same way that the saying, "those who can, do; those who can't, teach," makes fun of teachers. If taken literally, it is a very rude statement and I don't beleive it in the least. It is playful ridicule from an author that is secretly jealous of teachers. Teachers have a special knack for understanding concepts, and transferring it verbally in a way that helps others to understand. Transference of information is obviously a very important thing for humanity, being the social animals that we are. But then again, there is that strange fact that teachers don't necessarily do what they are talking about. They get the information from experiments done by other scientists. They may have side jobs that are biologically related but this isn't a must. They only need to be able to grasp the information enough to pass it on to others. Those who are in the field and doing the work might not realize it, but this is just as important as anything they are doing. Teachers plant the seed of curiousity that gets scientists interested in the field to begin with. In this way, one teacher can indirectly cause a great many scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. Teachers perpetuate ideas and information so that our society will continue growing and progressing.