Reply #27: university prof, scientist, artist, and builder.... [View All]

[mike_c]

I have an awesome job, or at least one that suits me well. I'm a biologist-- an ecologist and entomologist more specifically-- and a university professor of zoology. Tenured full prof at a California State University campus in Humboldt County, CA. From a professional standpoint, it doesn't get much better. I came from a THOROUGHLY blue collar background-- didn't finish high school, didn't go to college until mid-life and I'm the first in my family to go to college, let alone graduate school-- so this gig is really different from work during my young and mid-adult years. For the first ten years or so I was so busy that I effectively didn't have much life outside my profession, but I love my work so much that I didn't mind much.

I'm too intellectually restless to stay so one dimensionally focused for too long though, so these days I've carved out time for having a life outside work. I draw and paint, I make things (my partner and I are building a custom teardrop trailer currently), we camp, hike, bicycle, and so on. We love music (listening to it-- neither of us is especially musical ourselves), art, and good food. We're both excellent cooks. And as the evolution of this response from ME to WE suggests, my partner is very important to my happiness. I've become a labor activist too, and I'm vice president and grievance officer in my union chapter.

Oh, and the response above reminded me that we both read all the time, both for entertainment and professionally, AND we're cat rescuers!