I tried to call Connections day before yesterday but it was busy, which is unusual for an NPR talk show. (Also, I was looking at Bad Astronomy just the night before--truly proof of psychic influence) I am almost 37, and I have heard that if you haven't amounted to anything in astronomy by age 35, find something else. Well, how about if you're just getting started? I am taking first-year physics and calculus classes at North Carolina State University and maintaining A to high B averages. I am already a lawyer and like most lawyers I wish I wasn't, at least not full-time, so maybe I can be an astro-something. I am aware this transition has been made at least once, with good results. I am also trying to find time to help Dr. Kazmiercz Borkowski with a little SNR X-ray research, probably after classes end for the semester. We don't have an optical observatory but we can get to Chandra data like anybody else. I would be perfectly happy to take a PhD here but I see that at the big-name schools they have a high proportion of grads staying in the business, so I might like to try there.

What do you folks think? Any hope, or am I not using my spacetime well?