Jobs I Wish I Had

When I was a kid, I wanted to be all the normal things. I wanted to be a police officer, a fireman, an astronaut, and a soldier. Of course, I also wanted to be a jockey (I outgrew that--literally--young), a preacher, and a bus driver (I still can't figure that one out).

But the thing there were always a handful of jobs that always stuck in mind as being far, far cooler than the others. The top of the list was assassin. Other kids wanted to be secret agents, and I wanted to be a paid killer. Go figure.

Anyway, next on the list was rock star. My unfortunate lack of musical talent and a hideous stage fright doomed any rock star ambitions that I had. I'm sort of okay with that, though; the last thing the world really needs is another rock star, but there's always a severe shortage of good assassins.

Rounding out the top three was the one that didn't seem to fit with any of my other dreams. I thought that one of the absolute coolest jobs ever had to be an archeologist. Not an Indiana Jones style archeologist--just the carefully searching for history hidden right beneath our feat.

I realize that most of archeology is drudge work--just like most jobs that don't involve being a paid assassin or a rock star. I'm guessing that even being a high paid porn star would get a little tedious after a bit, and the thought of that is just depressing.

So, yes, I realize that not all of an archeologist's job is what we would call fun. It isn't champagne and parties and the spotlight; it's work.

But then something happens that makes it worth it. Something is found that could help form the way we view ancient cultures. Which is all an elaborate way to get to this story:

Divers making dangerous probes through underwater caves near the Caribbean coast have discovered what appears to be one of oldest human skeletons in the Americas, archaeologists announced at a seminar that was ending on Friday.

The report by a team from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History exploits a new way of investigating the past. Most coastal settlements by early Americans now lie deep beneath the sea, which during the Ice Age was hundreds of feet lower than now.

Now that sounds almost as good as being a paid assassin. In fact, archeologist might have just moved up a spot...

Read the story.

Posted by zombyboy at September 10, 2004 09:37 AM