Welcome to our second weekly entry of Bamboo Shoots: The Care and Feeding of Pandas. Everyone asks children what they'd like to be when they grow up, but rarely do we get to revisit that as adults. So, I posed the question "If you could do anything other than what you do in your day job and/or be a full-time writer, what would it be?" I took away the easy answers (current day job and/or writer) because I wanted the Pandas to reach deep inside themselves to hopefully reveal some hidden talents or desires.
This week, I thought I'd start things off with my own answer. Here's a little tidbit about me. I love baseball. My dad used to call it "the thinking person's game" and he's right. Every single pitch changes the game dynamics and all nine players in the field on defense and every offensive player on base or in the box have to know what those changing dynamics are. I love that aspect, trying to determine what the next pitch will be, what the batter will do, if the runners taking a lead will get picked off by the pitcher or steal a base, or any other of the infinite number of possibilities. Add in the crack of the bat when the ball hits the sweet spot, and the roar of the crowd as it soars in the sky and my soul is happy.
From the time my son, Don, was five until he was 16, I was his baseball coach. Believe me, it wasn't always easy, being the only female boys baseball coach here in central Texas. But, I wasn't going to let some negative attitudes steal my joy in coaching the boys season after season. We won a lot of games, both regular season and All Stars. Turns out boys like playing for a coach that encourages them and shares in their love of the game. So, all of this back story is to tell you that if I was not able to be the Publisher of Pandamoon, I'd really love to be a manager for a Major League baseball team. Granted, there are no females even in coaching roles in MLB yet, but one day there will be and I will be there to cheer her on.
Now, that you've gotten a little insight into me, I'd like to share some of the responses of my Pandas.
Cheri Champagne
Author of The Mason Siblings Series and The Seductive Spy Series
Ever since I was a young child, I’d wanted to be a teacher. The college that I first attended out of highschool, however, had dreadful student guidance counselors who would not meet with me to discuss which courses I needed to take in order to qualify for the waitlist for the teaching program. Instead, I took the courses that I was naturally drawn to, which was Creative Writing and English. Even while doing what I truly loved, I was blinded by my desire to teach. After marrying my highschool sweetheart and switching to a university, I decided that I’d ran out of time to become a teacher, having “wasted” four years of schooling on elective writing courses. I joined an Applied Business Technology program and graduated a year later.
If I had gone directly to university out of highschool, my life would be drastically different today. I would very likely have followed my childhood dream of becoming an early childhood education teacher.
Jeff Messick
Author of Knights of the Shield and The Magehunter Saga
I have two, one could have happened, if I’d applied myself. First, I’d love to be a manager of personnel on an NFL team. Determining who to get, why to get them and how they fit onto the team fascinates me, adding to normally strong showings in Fantasy Football. Secondly, I’d love to be a Chief Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force, doing Air Traffic Control, like I was back in the day. To achieve the highest NCO rank in a career field I love, would have been awesome.
Elgon Williams
Global Publicist and Author of Fried Windows, the Becoming Thuperman Trilogy, and The Wolfcat Chronicles
Whether it was a blessing or a curse, I have been many things in my professional life. I was fortunate enough to make a bit of money at most of those things, though certainly not enough money to be able to retire or do anything else I want. I think the only thing I’ve been passionate about, other than writing, is working with computers. I’ve written software, repaired hardware, taught people how to use applications, even discussed design philosophy with some of the people who work on the really small little black boxes that populate a computer’s main (mother) board. I was pretty good at it to the point that I did it as a side job while I worked in retail management. And it eventually led to being hired by a computer retailer as a manager. But I never did it to the exclusion of anything else.
Matt Coleman
Author of Juggling Kittens and Graffiti Creek
I’ve wanted to write since I was in high school, so that has been the “dream job” as long as I can remember. BUT … I realized something through my primary career as an educator. And I didn’t realize it until I moved out of the classroom and started to work in teacher training. When I made that transition, I worked on a team for the first time really. Sure, there are teacher teams and collaborative planning and all that. But I had never really worked on a team the way I did when I planned teacher conferences and worked on large scale projects such as that. In doing so, I was forced to self reflect to determine what exactly it is I bring to the team. And I realized that I do not necessarily like writing because of my love for language, my love for it truly lies in my need to be creative. I learned that my primary drive is one of creativity more than it is communication related. So I would say that my “dream job” would probably be in advertising. I think I would thrive in a team setting like that, coming up with new and unique approaches to things, trying to put ideas together in original ways. I love the idea behind those Mad Men-esque pitches. My happiest moments are when I feel like I have come up with an idea, whether it’s a line of dialogue or an approach in education, that no one has thought of before. Advertising, while it may not be a “noble profession” like teaching or a traditionally artistic endeavor like writing, would most likely feed me professionally in all the areas I most hunger for validation.
Penni Jones
Author of On the Bricks and Kricket
I toyed with the idea of becoming a personal trainer on and off for a few years. I even worked for a fitness company for a while. I love the idea of helping people reach their health and fitness goals. It seems like such a fun career. I’m very social, so I think hanging out at the gym and chatting all day would be energizing for me. And it would be a great excuse to live in yoga pants. But like everything else, I would ultimately hope to garner a lot of stories from the experience.
Laura Ellen Scott
Author of The Juliet and the New Royal Mysteries
Is cat lady an option? But seriously, all my life I’ve been placed in counseling type roles, so that’s probably my natural skill set--telling people what to do. But outside of that, I think I would love to make puzzles or work in archives. If there are any jobs that require snorkeling in Belize, I’d be up for that, too.
Dana Faletti
Author of Beautiful Secret, The Whispers Trilogy, and Nana's Secrets
A Broadway musical actress. I’ve always loved the theatre. I love to sing and act, and when I was in high school and into my twenties, I did some local theatre. Since my daughters act in local theatre programs, I get to stay super involved with shows. We also make sure to travel to the Big Apple a few times a year to catch the latest hits. It’s definitely a passion of mine! My dream roles would probably be Miss Adelaide in Guys n’ Dolls, Eponine in Les Miserables or Miss Hannigan in Annie (I kind of sympathize with her!)
Meg Bonney
Media Coordinator and Author of The Everly Series
It’s no secret that I love music and TV. My dream job would be to work for a TV network, selecting the music that plays behind the scenes of a show. As an author, I use music when I write. It helps get me back in the right frame of mind and each book I work on has it’s own soundtrack. I love when you are watching a TV show and there is a big emotional scene and the song just perfectly captures that moment. I want to get a DVD of a scene with no context and find a song that fits it and enhances it. I’m not sure if that’s even a real job, but it’s what I would love to do!
Rachel Schoenbauer
Editorial Coordinator
I’d be an actress, or working backstage again as a stage manager. I’ve always had a blast with anything that revolved around theatre and the stage, and it’s one thing that I’d love to have back in my life. It’s what kept me moving forward during college, and there’s a spark and intensity to the theatre that is truly unique. The instantaneous audience feedback is like nothing else. Alternatively--I’d be a linguist working furiously to preserve languages via technology, making repositories of knowledge so that future generations can enjoy every language possible. Or I’d be a carpenter. I love working with my hands and creating things that are functional, and the best part about carpentry is all the really amazing machines that are out there to shape wood (and maybe metal) into the most fantastic shapes. So I’d get to play with heavy machinery and make things that people would actually use and enjoy. Or I’d be a teacher, because I’m always just on the edge of actually being a teacher in a formal setting and I might someday tip over that last little bit and start. I love seeing that little ‘click’ of understanding when people put the pieces together or that light when they learn something new. I’m excited about so many things that ‘alternate me’ is a massive tree of branching possibilities.
I hope you've enjoyed these glimpses into some of our Pandas. Be sure to come back every Wednesday for another interesting question and answer post.