The Vein in My Neck Will Surely Bust

if I hear yet one more jerk say thus: "oh, do you want to go into politics?!?"

I do political science. I prefer not to lie to people. When people ask me what I do, I tell them. I am a graduate student in political science.

Now, the three most common responses, in order of frequency, and, as it happens, level of irritation induced upon asking, are:

1) So, do you think you'll run for office some day? (or, the above-cited, "do you want to go into politics?")

2) Oh, do you want to be a lawyer?

3) Oh! I love to talk about politics. Tell me, what do you think of Joe B. Nobody who's running in Nowhere, Nohow for dogcatchter?/Tell me, what do you think of the current situation in Lebanon....blah blah blah

The first is irksome because, well, how many politicians with PhD's in political science are you aware of? I can think of Woodrow Wilson and...Nope, that's it.

The second...damn, people--if I wanted to be a lawyer, I'd be in law school!!! I don't think people get the distinction between college student and graduate student. My bitterness at this response resides in my inability to forget that distinction, what with the poor pay, terrible work conditions and yelling screaming advisors and all.

The last... if I told you I were a math grad student, would you try to get me to discuss algebra? Prolly not. You would assume that my knowledge superceded yours, and that I might be bored speaking on a topic you could understand, and you might be bored if I got to speak on what I actually do.

That does it. From now on, I'm a math grad student. And if you look down on me because I'm lying to people, well...damn, at least I'm not a lawyer or a politician!!


PS:
I used to be an economics grad student. Upon learning this, numerous strangers would enquire as to their stock options, the state of the economy, the exchange rate of the Euro, etc etc. I studied at an institution which specializes in deeply abstract theory. The most useful bit of information I could offer someone? Well, I tell you now of the_most real-world scenario we were learned:

"listen, if you're ever on an island with one other person, and it's somehow ordained by God that one of you is in charge of all the coconuts, and one is in charge of all the fish, and you give me your utility function for cocunuts and fish (preferrably in log-linear form), then I can tell you the optimal trade to make with your partner."