Café vs. Medicine

So, what's my dream? Do I want to be a Doctor? Or do I want to own a little business, open a café and make fantastic coffee and sell pastries? I mean, I've thought I wanted to study medicine since I was seven. I've always been fascinated with science and how our body works. But am I willing to devote my life to being a doctor? At least if I had my own business I'd be able to eventually hire and trains staff to work for me. I'd be able to have a family, have reasonable working hours... I could live wherever I want! But medicine is such a big deal... I'd be saving lives, and at least I'd be making a good salary, have a good job. I wouldn't be able to start a family immediately, but eventually I could and I'd have enough money to easily support a family. Maybe I could do the baking and somehow take it oversees. Culinary school or something... traveling is my real passion anyway. I don't know, I"m just so unsure about where my life is taking me right now.
It started on Thanksgiving. I was making pies with my mom and telling her how I've always had three ideal outlines for my future, each that I liked equally. One was to be a doctor, the other was to open a small coffee shop somewhere, and the third was to own a Vineyard in Latin American and sell wine. After talking about the coffee shop some, she asked me, "Why don't you?". At first I was puzzled she'd even ask, medicine has always been what I thought I'd do with my life after all. It's been "the plan" since I was seven, for goodness' sake! But then I really started thinking... what if? What if I did go into business and take a culinary arts class and actually open a little coffee shop/bakery somewhere? So I thought about it, and researched it, and talked to mom about it for this past week... and the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. I've never thought I'd stray from medicine, but who knows!? I could be very successful with the business, and that way (with the business degree) if the coffee shop isn't working, I could easily move and either start a different business or work in something else. I'm really kind of excited about this idea, who knows what'll happen in the end... but, maybe medicine isn't my calling? I don't know.

Pro's	Con's
I'm boss	At beginning- Unstable
I can move around freely	Not medicine
Personal independence	No immediate job after university
Not working for gov.	Not as much income
Less school	Equal, if not more, work
More fun	Crazy hours
Less stressful	Working/Interacting with people
Food/coffee	Majoring in business/accounting = math
Partnering with Latin Am. Coffee plantations	Submitted applications for pre-med
Franchising
Baking
Could start a family earlier
Could travel
More free time

So as you can see, the Pro's outweigh the Con's. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea... or does it?

11·11·11

Make a wish.

Guy Fawkes Night

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot."

November 5th is known as "Bonfire Night" or "Guy Fawkes Night", and all over Britain people fire off fireworks, light bonfires, and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. Guido Fawkes was an Englishman who, in popular legend, tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament with barrels of gunpowder. He was caught, imprisoned, tortured on the rack, and finally executed, as we'll see.

400 years ago, Guy Fawkes was a co-conspirator in the "Gunpowder Plot" of 1605 in England. He and his cohorts decided to blow up the both Houses of Parliament in London and kill King James I upon the inaugural opening of the Parliament, and succeeded in smuggling several barrels of gunpowder into the basement of the Parliament.

This "Gunpowder Plot" occurred two years after King James I (of the "King James Bible" fame) ascended to the throne. A group of English Catholics, of which Guido Fawkes was a member, decided to kill the King because it was felt he had reneged on his promises to stop the persecution of Catholics. To this day, it is the law in Britain that a Roman Catholic cannot hold the office of monarch. And the Queen is still Supreme Head of the Church of England.

The plot was foiled at the eleventh hour; some of the plotters escaped, some turned King's Evidence and reported on the rest. The unlucky Fawkes was taken in chains to the Tower of London. He was hanged, drawn and quartered. After Guy was hanged, he was torn asunder and drug through the streets of London behind a horse cart. The charge was treason, though some people in England prefer to remember Guy as "the only man ever to enter Parliament with honourable intentions."

To this day, one of the ceremonies that accompany the opening of a new session of parliament, is the searching of the basement, by a bunch of men in funny hats. Parliament somehow made political capital out of the close call, and poor Guy Fawkes is burned in effigy every November 5th on bonfires all over Britain. They sell a lot of fireworks too, and children beg for money on the streets to buy them. The children usually exhibit the "guy" or dummy that will be put on the fire. "Penny for the guy, mister?" is a common refrain at this time of year.

In the last dozen years or so however, with the pervasiveness of American television and culture in England, the custom of celebrating Halloween is in the ascendancy, and many children are now going for the double treat: candy on October 31, money for November 5.

A Riddle

If you break me
I do not stop working,
If you touch me
I may be snared,
If you lose me
Nothing will matter.