And What Do You Do?

Alright, here's the thing: I'm an introvert. An introvert who hates to fly. An introvert who hates to fly, who is not a morning person, who nevertheless ends up on crack of dawn flights to the Midwest when she's going on vacation.

This means I do not really want to talk to anybody on my flight. I pretty much want to read until we take off, then turn on my iPod as soon as electronic devices are allowed, close my eyes, and try to forget about the fact that I am sitting in a small metal tube that is hurtling several hundred miles an hour, many thousands of feet above the ground. It's nothing personal against anyone else who may be flying with me - I'm sure they're all lovely people. I just don't want to talk to them.

But here's the other thing: I'm very polite. Though I will not initiate a conversation with the person sitting next to me, I will respond when spoken to. Even if I'm spoken to while clearly reading a book. And I frequently get seated next to raging extroverts, who just can't help themselves, they have to talk.

Inevitably the conversation turns to why we are traveling, what we do for a living. And when they find out I'm a pastor, then they often spend the duration of the flight either asking me all about what it's like being a pastor (especially a woman pastor), or telling me all about their church (like the very sweet and well-intentioned woman who talked to me about the Salvation Army for two hours yesterday morning), and occasionally telling me what they think is wrong with the church.

Please don't get me wrong, these have all been very gracious and interesting people, and these are conversations that I would probably enjoy having were I tapping into my "professional E" on the ground.

But I'm an introvert, who hates flying, who is not a morning person, who is on vacation, who is too polite to wait for a lull in the conversation and put my headphones on so you can't keep talking to me.

So I think I just need to come up with a fake job to give as an answer to that inevitable "And what do you do?" question. Something weird enough that others are not likely to know much about it, yet not so weird that I can't say anything intelligible about it or that they'll be so intrigued that they'll want to take about my fake job for the whole flight.

I am honest to a fault, so I don't know if I could really pull it off. But I'm open to suggestions. . .

Happy Thanksgiving,
C.