You don't need a PhD to become an authority on something.
(DISCLAIMER: No one will believe that you are an authority, or want to hear about your research, or ever discuss your topic with you at length or in any fashion whatsoever after they've heard you rant about it after the first, maybe your second, for certain, your third time. But, hey, that happens to PhDs as well. All. The. Time.)
As a PhD, most of your research can be done for free, at a library, an archive, or a museum. This privilege is also extended to those non-PhDs out there. That's what libraries, archives, and museums are for, and most of them are free and/or reliant on donations. You'd be surprised at how many people don't know this and insist on paying hundreds of dollars (US) or tens of GBP (UK) a month for the 'privelege' of getting the internet in their home (A lot of libraries, archives, and museums offer that for free as well.)
I won't lecture you in how you spend your time.
The point is that I have read and researched so much on my topic that I could now be considered an authority... but I'll keep reading this one last thing so that I can show off my smarts to exactly no one. Just as some of my friends here have, according to me, become the authority figures on their own topics. Should I ever have a question on John Fletcher (contemporary of Shakespeare), or really any of the Early Modern British dramatists? I know who to go to.
A really potent idea that occurred to me this morning is that we, as a species, have recently spent a lot of time commenting on other people's strange fascinations, and as a result, tend not to pursue any of our own strange fascinations for fear of public ridicule, or even private shaming... disdain, jeering, or even 'badinage' (look it up). It's perfectly acceptable to find biology interesting as your friend, the soon-to-be or already doctor of medicine, does in his spare time between saving lives and delivering babies. It's alright, and I guess it's acceptable to play music as your friend, the talented one, does everyday... for four hours at no pay. It's pretentious-and-more-than-a-bit-obnoxious acceptable to speak Shakespearean verse during everyday conversation as your soon-to-be-ex friend better stop doing when you are standing at a urinal. That's weird, right? Everywhere else, you've come to accept it.
The strange thing is that, it is not perfectly acceptable for you to drink coffee and tell the customers at Starbucks about how much you love it as you stand behind the counter making slightly above minimum wage with great benefits... you must hate that, right? Don't you just hate crunching numbers as an accountant? What is an economist and why is that useful? Teachers have such a hard time, so they really must hate their jobs, don't you? There must be something desperately wrong with you that you want to... wait, you want write a textbook? That's even worse than what I was thinking that you did.
I'm betting that actress/hoteliere/banker who made twenty-two million dollars on their last film/real estate purchase/finance deal is so happy with herself/himself that she/he holds parties at her/his Malibu-Barbie-Beach mansion entitled, "I'm glad I'm me"... don't you want to be her, or him, or them?
You can know about the central nervous system without being a doctor, and it won't be weird, it'll be fascinating. You can learn about the harvesting of coffee beans in Nicaragua and the plight of the worker without ever having worked as a barista or ever intending to hold a protest. You can learn a new language because you want to, and learn the guitar because you like the way it sounds, and even work a Shakespearean quote into your next conversation because you're seeing if your friends notice it. You're allowed to like stuff and study it and become an authority (a pretentious speaker and thinker of knowledge that far surpasses those around you) on just about anything that you are interested in.
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The point of this rant is that we have gone so far to homogenize our lives and our interests that we forget to remember ourselves as the most important part of our own happiness, contentment, and regular source of entertainment. The sentence: "I once spent a year learning how to hogtie a goat" is not one that is easily walked away from at parties, even if the explanation is as simple as"I felt like it."
-Quote to insert into your next conversation-
"Well, sir, learn to jest in good time:
There's a time for all things." -- Comedy of Errors (II.ii)
Year 3, Day 262 - Words Written: Another 4,000.
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