A Look at My Island

So what follows is my first participation in a meme. Pauline from the blog Writing Down the Words asked me 5 interview questions which I answered (long-windedly :S maybe the next meme I'll be able to keep shorter). So here it is:

Question One: If you could land your dream job, what would it be?

Haha, this actually quite the complicated question to be asking a graduate in my opinion. Most of us have no idea what our dream jobs are - and we spend half our time thinking about it these days. We keep hearing from career counsellors and teachers and seemingly endless articles that you should love what you do - but what if what you love isn't exactly a money making venture? Well then the reply might be to do what you're good at - this isn't necessarily helpful either. I have a friend who's struggling with this predicament in her courses right now - she gets extremely high grades in one strand of courses but she prefers a different strand in which she gets much lower grades - so which should she focus on? Sometimes it isn't as simple as doing what you love.
But I'm digressing slightly. My dream job splits into 3 possibilities that I can't quite decide between. My ultimate dream job would be to be a professional writer - of fiction, fantasy literature in particular, although I also enjoy writing poetry. And what poet hasn't dreamed of the Griffin Poetry Prize or other prestigious awards - but all too often I get asked this question: that's nice dear, but what will your day job be? - thanks for the support. lol. As it happens though I think writing is something I'll always do - it's a passion and so for now I'll remove it from the list since it's always a possibility.
Which leads me to the other two dream options - owning an independent bookshop or starting my own publishing house. Are you seeing a theme yet? These two stem from naturally two different but highly related desires. The bookshop dream comes from my wish to share my love of reading with the world. There are 3 librarians in my family and I grew up with a never-ending supply of books to read. But what I consider equally special was that my Mum would take me with her when she went book-buying for her library (a high school library) and she'd let me help choose the books! Not only was this a glorious kid-in-the-candy-store experience but I loved the reward at the end of the experience - when she'd tell me that the books I chose were hardly ever in the library, that the kids loved them and were constantly taking them out. I'd love to do this for the rest of my life.
On the flip-side of this comes the desire to discover writers - to pick that story out of the pile that's really something and give it a chance - to make some writer's dream come true. Currently I'm leaning towards the bookstore dream job - I've begun researching what it takes to open up a bookstore but it'll take a lot of research before I finally decide - and it'll likely be several years before any of these dreams are possible - takes money to make money, so for now I'll stick to my writing - all it costs is a little time and commitment.

Question Two: What one person (living or not) has most influenced your life and how?

I know it might be a bit cliche but I honestly think the one person so far to have the biggest influence on my life has been my mother. She's a teacher librarian in a high school and not only did she provide me with an endless supply of books to read throughout my youth but she never censored what I read and she allowed me to help select the books for her library - enabling me to share my love of reading with others and instilling a life long passion for books and reading in me. Not only this but she showed me tremendous courage in our home life when I was growing up and when the time came she took us out of an unpleasant situation. I never doubted my mother's strength and resolve to live a good, honest life no matter what obstacles she was faced with. I only hope to have her wisdom, courage and strength when I'm her age.

Question Three: What are your own thoughts on alternate universes?

Haha - my thoughts on alternate universes change day by day. lol. But in all seriousness, I fully believe that there are other worlds existing out there, somewhere in the great beyond. How could there not be? It seems incredibly arrogant to believe that this earth is the only earth out there, the only planet or world with life in all the space beyond our small lighted window of this world. Wouldn't it be something fantastic if when you die instead of going nowhere, or to heaven or being reincarnated back on this earth you ended up in some other world in the universe? Until disproven as far as I'm concerned, all that the imagination can create exists in these alternate universes.

Question Four: What goals and aspirations do you have for the next ten years?

Heavens, ten years seems like a long time to me...and there are so many things I want to achieve within that time frame. If all goes well, I'll be good and graduated by the summer and sometime in the next two years I'll be married as well. And oh my, in the next ten years I hope to find a career that I can be passionate about, do something that I love, not every day, nobody loves their job every moment of every day, but one where I can be glad to go to work the following morning and start again. In my perfect world I'd have at least one book published by the time I'm thirty and be closer to my goal of opening up a bookshop. And family life? I'd like to start one! lol. I mean I have a family now, my fiance and myself, our dog Loki and cat Bagheera, but some little ones running around might be nice too - but not for a while. That's a lot of goals in 10 years and I have many more, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - let mine begin with that first step towards the podium to accept my degree.

Question Five: If, as a requisite for your upcoming graduation, you had to write an inspiring speech, what would be your subject and why?

Hmm, that's a bit of a toughy, but I think I'd take a page out of President Obama's book and make my speech about our entering into an age of greatness. It is when times are most troubled and the world seems to be facing some of its greatest perils that the greatest deeds are done - and this is the future facing today's graduates - to rise up, face and overcome some of the greatest challenges the world has ever known. And I'm not speaking of war or other such passing perils - we'll always have war and they matter most to the people living in them but I'd argue they're quickly forgotten (relatively to the enormous span of human history). But there are some really interesting and new things facing us today - famine on a global scale, "global warming", nations seemingly completely unable to extricate themselves from each other's business. Some of these new challenges and problems are down right bizarre when you think about them - but they're there nonetheless. But on the other side of the scale is this vast expanse of possibility. This could be the time when the world makes some serious shifts. Maybe we will discover some new worlds, maybe nation-states will dissolve and form some new global community, who knows? But it's our world to discover and make new and that's the important point. "'T is not too late to seek a newer world." An age of greatness ahead...let's hope.

And that concludes the interview :D Hope you liked it.

Now, if you’d like to answer interview questions of my own devising:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick what they will be.)
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview
someone else.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask
them five questions.