5 Other Lives
One of my assignments from The Artist’s Way Toolkit was to write down what I would do if I had five other lives to lead. Here’s what I came up with. I’m guessing four of them would require that I spend less time watching J.J. Abrams’ and Joss Whedon’s shows, which is a lot of what I’ve done with my present life. Regardless, here we go with my five other lives. (Should you have other lives of your own planned, I’d love to hear about them. As I’m currently obsessed with Fringe, I fully admit that I spend too much time wondering what alternate Laurel does with herself.)
1. Soap Star
This has been one of my fantasies for years. As a soap opera star, I would preferably be attached to a large family in town and constantly embroiled in love triangles. I would also like to be part of a supercouple, but get married tons of times so that I could put on all the different dresses. Ideally, I would play identical twins on General Hospital. One would be a do-gooding doctor at, where else, General Hospital. The other would be a mob princess.
2. Criminal Profiler
Some people armchair quarterback; I armchair crime solve. I would love to work for the FBI in a way that I would never get shot at. (Pursuits, shooting and possible death really don’t appeal to me.) I’m also aware that “criminal profiler” is not an actual job title. Seriously, if you go to the FBI’s job postings there’s an entire page dedicated to the fact that “Criminal Profiler” is not a position and that despite the popularity of Criminal Minds, that career path does not exist. I knew a lot of people watched Criminal Minds, but I had no idea so many people asked the FBI about it that they had to build a web disclaimer. Fascinating. I'd love to try and solve crimes/find the missing pieces of the puzzle while also trying to discover the whys of it all.
3. College Professor
In this scenario, the scene opens on a some small liberal arts college in New England just before Winter break. Snow is falling. Coeds run around excited about heading home for the holidays and nervous about exams. I walk through the quad in fashionable tweed with piles of papers in my arms before heading back to the big old home with a wrap-around porch that I share with my husband and tons of way too-wise-for-their-years kids. For the sake of the fantasy, we ignore the fact that I disdain snow and tend to have trouble talking to large groups of people under the age of 20.
4. TV Writer
If I'd had more guts when I was younger, I would have loved to have seen what I could accomplish as a television writer. Reading Mindy Kaling's book made me very jealous. (She started writing for The Office at 24, people. 24! I was writing post-it notes at 24.) I think it would have been interesting to explore the Hollywood world from the writing perspective. Again, for the sake of fantasy, we have to ingore the fact that L.A. traffic would do me in within a week.
5. Wealthy Hermit
In my fifth life, I'd just be independently wealthy. I'd always be in beautiful clothes, go back and forth between my impeccable homes, eat amazing food and travel the world. In this life, I think I could keep the J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon shows. Only, I'd do it without the guilt I feel in thinking I should be doing something else. And better snacks.