I try to encounter as many people as I can and fix people as I
   go along in whatever ways I know how. They help fix me too.
   Doing it professionally could be awesome but then I'm
   accountable - and have to do it in person. I like my ugly yellow
   chair tho' a paycheck would be nice sometimes. Asked a career
   counselor "What to do" in my early 20s. I was caught between a
   music career and working in computers. She said, (Vera Moskowitz
   was her name - still remember - met her on a CB radio chat (I
   did both online chat rooms *and* CB radio at the time, cause it
   was still a thing back then) - and found out she worked for the
   local college so I set up an appointment) - Anyway, she said
   something about "vocation vs advocation". In short: it's
   unlikely you can do both simultaneously. I don't know how much
   it helped but I went with computers instead of starting a record
   label and I'm glad I did. Still, that combo of "here's the thing
   I make money at" and "here's the things that drive me in life to
   make a difference in" - never FULLY merged yet at the same time,
   I found ways to exercise *some of* my need to help wherever I
   happened to be at. == Yeah, fix is poor choice of words. I
   enable in a good way. Provide the environment which maximized
   their potential for self-discovery. That sort of thing. == I
   accept ppl as they are. If I see something they're stumbling
   with in my estimation, I try to provide an opportunity for them
   to step over. Indirectly mostly. Thing is, I'm working on myself
   the whole time. I see everybody as my teacher and try to find
   something from them I can learn about myself with. Yet, there's
   still an element of health there. So not fixing - more assisting
   the conditions when I can. I engage with people purposefully. I
   don't have an outcome for them other than hoping they can be
   more of who they already are, whether I or they know what that
   is. I just realized how that sounds like nonsense. I don't want
   to launch in the analogy of "the doctor doesn't fix people just
   sets up optimum conditions for their own healing" but yeah, it's
   like that. I also get to talk about myself a lot in the process.
   Am I really making positive change? I think so - I keep half an
   eye on people for areas where they're the same since our
   encounters and where they're different. I just consider that
   friendship really. == Well, all I can really say is "Congrats!"
   and I'm sure you'll do well whatever direction you choose. Never
   took the test. Always curious how I'd score but military was
   never attractive to me as an option. *Briefly* considered Navy
   as they had the best tech stuff at the time (got the literature
   in 88/89 when I was 16/17 yrs old) but it was brief indeed.
   Besides, cold war just ended and I didn't see much need for the
   military to exist anymore. Oopsie. == Products of our time. It's
   strange to think of it: I never took terrorism seriously. Even
   with 9-11. Loosely following the conflicts through the 90s + 00s
   and 10s.... ...and I still can't take it seriously. I grew up
   with the threat of instant vaporization. One day, a bomb was
   gonna hit NYC from the Soviets that was so powerful, the heat
   would turn me into dust right in my NJ home - or at school - or
   walking down the street... - or worse, I'd live. I'd survive.
   I'd JUST survive. With that threat gone out of my head, I
   couldn't imagine further global conflicts being possible, unless
   we got bored as a country and decided to get ourselves involved
   in other things. Didn't REALLY realize the USA was a war country
   'til much later. Still never felt (and still don't feel)
   actively threatened by other forces. Can't top vaporization.
   MAYBE chemical warfare or poisoning water supplies. That being
   said, I'm glad the military's there and a country's gotta do
   what a country's gotta do I suppose.   =