On Sunday, Twitter user @Mantia asked people to share what the general public always seems to get wrong about their professions.
Here are some of the best responses:
1. Archaeologist:
@Mantia Archaeologists don't deal with dinosaurs and few of us ever excavate abroad.
2. Marriage, family, and sex therapist:
@Mantia Marriage, Family & Sex Therapist: - my marital status does not impact my knowledge, wisdom, empathy or ethics. - therapy takes time; maybe weeks, maybe months. Don't expect me to help you "fix" in one session what took years to destroy. - sex problems are rarely about sex.
3. Novelist:
@Mantia Writing a novel is not remotely the same kind of work as writing 1) a high school paper 2) a press release 3) a grocery list
4. Speech pathologist:
@Mantia I can evaluate the speech and language skills of a young child, before he/she utters the first real word.
5. Actor:
@Mantia Entourage is not realistic.
6. Teacher:
@Mantia Teaching is an incredibly hard skill to learn and requires way more ongoing training than non-teachers (including many college profs, alas) think it does.
7. High school teacher:
@Mantia Teaching high school is performing one or more new one-act plays every day, with reviewers who never see a show and an audience of hormone-riddled screen addicts who wouldn't notice if you died mid-slideshow. I will never love anything more.
8. Neuroscientist:
@Mantia Psychologist = Scientist who studies the mind. Psychiatrist = Doctor who treats mental disorders. Neuroscientist = Scientist who stidies the brain. Neurologist = Doctor who treats disorders of the nervous system.
9. French-English translator:
@Mantia A person who speaks multiple languages, and acts as an intermediary so that people who don’t speak the same language can converse aloud with one another, is not called a “translator”.
10. Local news reporter:
@Mantia Local news reporters do not cover POTUS. They do cover city hall, crime, military, local economy, etc. They do not get paid more for controversial stories, but will be unemployed, and your local gov’t left unchallenged, if you don’t subscribe to digital editions and support them.
11. Creative:
@Mantia That working in the creative industry relies heavily upon your ability to sell ideas no one has ever seen before to people without an imagination
12. Massage therapist:
@Mantia Giving a massage is not easy, no my hands don’t hurt unless I’ve been going for 5+ hours without a break, no you aren’t getting a ‘happy ending’, and no I’m not some kind of hippy without schooling.
13. Transportation engineer:
@Mantia Widening highways makes congestion worse.
Explanation for that here.
14. Nurse:
@Mantia Nurses are underpaid. We are not all sexy. We work outside of hospitals too. We are often hourly wage workers who don't get paid if we don't work, and insurance companies cover everything medical ( doctors, specialists, therapists, procedures, equipment) but not nursing hours.
15. Librarians:
@Mantia librarians do, in fact, still exist
16. Radiographer:
@Mantia When I X-ray you, I don’t need the area that’s hurting pointing to the camera. It’s a X-ray. I see all the way through you.