I have enjoyed my teaching career but I might have also enjoyed other ways of earning a living. Careers advice at my school was abysmal. Nursing and the police force were represented I remember … and, well, very little else.
I might have been happy working in publishing. I still don’t entirely understand all the functions of various publishing jobs. Possibly I would have liked working in an art gallery or museum. What should I have studied to make this possible? Nobody ever told me or showed me and I doubt if any school staff would have been able to help even if I had asked.
This musing was prompted by a Radio Times article on Susie Dent, she of ‘Countdown,’ a programme of which I know but do not watch. She has always loved words and language, as have I. I recognise that passion. I love etymology and Susie Dent calls this ‘word archaeology’ which is an appealing description.
I knew that the phrase ‘to be on cloud nine’ referenced the nine classes of angels in Christianity. The highest is seraphim, thereby being closest to God. I did not know that ‘to be in seventh heaven’ referred to the most exalted of heavens in the Islamic doctrine.
So interesting.
I could have been a lexicologist.