In a parallel universe, there is a version of me who is a linguist conducting research in typology, has a basic command of Latin and is a competent amateur cellist.
Inspired by this thread, but mine is about the things we didn’t do, and ended up regretting later.
Latin : when I started secondary school, I had to choose one of two programmes, “Latin” and “Modern”. Since I wanted to be an astronomer and the latter included an IT course (in 1986 !) and I had no use for a dead language, it was a no-brainer. That was a mistake. The “Modern” programme was basically a bunch of extra exercises classes in maths. Nothing more advanced or different. Plus, we didn’t touch a computer once throughout the year.
Cello : at age 11, I saw this poster on the ride home. I asked my mom what this cool instrument was. “It’s a cello”, she aswered. “Would you like to learn how to play it ? They have cello classes at the local music school. But you’ll first have to take music theory for a year.”
“Mmmmkay ?”
“You’ll learn how to sing for example.”
“In front of everyone ?”
“Of course.”
“Forget about it”.
I did end up studying the cello some 20 years later but, by that time, I had a job, was married and had a baby on the way so it didn’t last more that a couple of years.
Linguistic Typology : I was awarded the magna cum laude distinction at the end of my curriculum in linguistics, and I immediately thought about starting a PhD. I was really into Old Norse then and I told the professor I had done my master’s thesis with about it. He was very happy but told me : “You’ll never get a grant, though. No one, apart from you and me, is interested in that topic here”. So, I gave up before I had even started, and set out to find a job.
Fast-forward 25 years.
I was at the beginning of a romantic relationship with a colleague who had a PhD (in a completely different field). I told her about my experience as a student. She looked me in the eyes and said : “It’s never too late. You know that the CEO is eager to have employees who have PhDs. She may very well finance yours”. Of course, our company was not going to pay for a doctoral dissertation on Old Norse. But on something like the influence of language on business decisions ? That was possible. And that’s how I rediscovered linguistic typology. I say “rediscovered” because I realized that I had spent a lot of my free time in the University library reading about language universals, word order and so on. I found the topic fascinating but didn’t pursue it. Yet, that’s what I should have done at the time !
Our CEO liked the idea and took a few weeks to think about it but ultimately declined to finance it.
But I remember my ex telling me about her travels around the world to attend several conferences every year before Covid. I know it’s a surprisingly stressful career (publish or perish) but that’s the sort of life I wish I’d had.