Sixth-grade flashback is a reminder for career choice

I'm seated in Mrs. Vincent's sixth-grade science class and I'm having a flashback.

I'm at a desk way in the back of the room, behind the kid who asks the really good questions and right next to the kid doodling cartoon characters in his notebook.

I'm 24, so it's OK that I refer to Mrs. Vincent by her first name.

But I don't.

I'm in sixth grade again, and the teacher is lowering the blinds and turning off the lights.

It's time for a filmstrip. The subject: radioactivity.

I'm surrounded by two dozen 12-year-olds. Each seems to know more about gamma, alpha and beta rays than the next.

To me, Gamm...