writing vs. agriculture?

Something I feel I should have known already is that if I ever want a damn good laugh, or the urge to throw my laptop out the window (sorry, Macbook, but it's true), all I need to do is take some idiotic website's version of a career aptitude test. 


Basically: oh HA.


Even though I have done this several times before, the only instance ringing clear in my memory was when my dear institution of higher learning, through a series of multiple choice and either/or questions, suggested that my ideal career would be that of a farmer. Oh, ifff they onlyyy knewww NOW. Despite this comical result, and the image of me sitting atop a hunky green tractor wearing overalls with a piece of straw hanging from my lower lip (don't all farmers look that way?), I decided that for the hell of it, or for my own twisted sense of humor, I would give it another try.


The main reason behind this somewhat crazy idea of mine came from a (ahem) frequent frustration of what feels like running out of options. Or being backed into a corner. Or not being able to imagine my life any differently, which is a phase that can be brought on from time to time when things aren't exactly panning out as planned, or in any real tangible in-my-face sense. I'm not saying this is a bad move, or necessarily a useful move, as you will soon see. But I thought that perhaps a neutral, data-driven results test could show me some avenues I hadn't yet considered for myself, some guidance towards certain professions that wouldn't otherwise come to mind. 


This, my friends, is called dreaming big.


While these aptitude tests are not entirely useless, and while I think the personality you have plays a tremendous part in what sort of work you're suited for (apparently I am an intuitive introvert with a stronger sense of perception than judgment. Well, I could have told you that.), the chances that these questionnaires are going to revolutionize your job search are slim as can be. Most of them, while answering them honestly, informed me that I am due for a creative career choice, that I am best suited for a job in the traditional visual arts, that I should be a writer or an editor or be involved in some sort of communications department of a business or enterprise.


I know, CareerPath. I know. 


While some may deliver more humorous and "HUH?" reactions (such as the one random site that suggested I was well-suited for a medical career ... um, pass), and while one pithy results page (that seriously could use a web designer's touch, because YIKES) steered me right back to my agricultural roots (seriously, it must be all those vegetables I love so much. Check it, folks, new blog on the rise. Here's one for integrated advertising!), and even though I can quite clearly envision myself sitting on a farmhouse porch, perhaps cowboy boots on my feet, at least much more than I can bear the thought of buying new non-slip shoes, I'm afraid the search continues with avengance, and with not much new information under my belt. Still, it doesn't hurt to know that even a computer-generated test can read who I am, just as real live people can, and know that there is something I'm deliberately here for, something my very being craves and demands.


It will set your mind reeling, to say the least. It will make you consider yourself, and with the best of intentions, it will make you tell the truth, which is something that bears surprising difficulty, even when nothing seems to really be at stake. 


Still, if this year, already half of the first month underway, doesn't start yielding some serious possibility, you may have to find me digging deep into the earth, dirt permanently caked under my nails, cultivating rich results, starting fresh. Apparently, somewhere in the world, it's what I'm meant for.