Garbage collector, astronaut, and what
I'm doing now. That's pretty much it.
Believe it or not I'm STILL getting
people commenting on that “Word On the Street” profile of me
from last week. In the interview I come out of the closet as a
lifelong space nerd, something that's no surprise to those of you who
read these yet an apparent shock to some people. And because of that
I had someone ask me a few days ago if I ever wanted to become an
astronaut. After I got done laughing and saying “duh” to myself
28 and a half times, I started to to think. And as we all know, that
can be a dangerous thing.
Did you know I only wanted to be three
things in my life? It's true, which means I'm either the luckiest
person on the face of the Earth or I really need to work on getting a
little ambition into my life. I'll let you decide which it is.
According to my parents, when I was a
real little kid I wanted to be a garbage collector. I was apparently
transfixed by both the trucks that they used and the noise those
trucks made. My mom, especially, says I would wait and look out the
window in the morning when the garbage truck was scheduled to come,
and then be all happy when they stopped and collected the trash. For
the first five or six years of my life that's all I ever wanted to
be.
Then I discovered space.
I probably spent, oh, the next decade
or so wondering if I could become an astronaut which, if I have to
admit, is probably still a dream of mine. I know it probably won't
happen, but if anyone has an extra quarter million bucks lying around
and wants to buy me a ticket for one of Virgin Galactic's suborbital
flights, I wouldn't complain.
Really, I wouldn't.
What made me realize that I probably
would never become an astronaut? Well, to be totally honest, it's
math. Even today, when mission specialists and non-pilot astronauts
abound, you still need to be smart. You need to be good at certain
things like physics or biology or (ugh) math. You need to have a
skill set that makes it worthwhile to send you up into orbit. And I
don't have that sort of skill set.
Unless, you know, they need someone to
be really sarcastic on the International Space Station for a few
weeks. Then I might be at the head of the line.
So that brings us to the final of three
things I wanted to be when I was growing up. I loved the media. As
I mentioned in the profile, when I was a kid I would take a radio at
night and listen to clear channel AM stations throughout the country.
I would be fascinated by TV shows, and how they're put together.
And when I realized that my one true skill set in life—not math,
not athletics, not being able to put a car together while
blindfolded—was being able to get up in front of a microphone or a
camera and perform, I was set.
And all these later, I haven't had to
pick out a fourth career choice.
Everything I'm doing now—radio, TV,
history—all comes from that one skill set. It comes from me
talking and me performing. And considering that I was a really shy
kid, it's kind of astounding, when you come to think of it. I
would've put good money on a bet that the 9-year old me would not
have grown up to do what the adult me does. And there's not one
point at which I can pinpoint the change from shy kid to “Jim
Koski, Media Wh*re”; it just kind of happened over a couple of
years, and before I knew it I could talk without thinking and work a
crowd (perhaps my one REAL skill) like a pro.
Who knew?
So there you go. Yes, I DID want to
become an astronaut. I just wasn't smart enough, just like I
probably wasn't mechanically inclined enough to become a master
garbage collector, either. It's a good thing that performing
requires neither brains or muscle. That way, I'll (hopefully) never
have to make that fourth career choice!
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