I didn't realize that you could be a professional
scientist; I had the idea that I'd have to be, I don't know, a salesman (my father said that was
better than the manufacturing end of things), and do science on weekends and evenings. It wasn't until my sophomore year in high school that my biology teacher revealed to me that there was such a thing as a professional scientist, who got paid to do it; so you could spend all your time learning about the universe. It was a glorious day.