On Choosing What To Be When You Grow Up

So all the years I was working in ISP-land, I was jealous of the other kids of my acquaintance who got to go to things like Usenix and SANS and Black Hat and what-not.

Then, I come unto academia, and I see that practically the whole department, it seems like, flits from conference to conference like bees amongst the meadow flowers. "Ah hah!", thought I, "now it's my turn, at last." But then I stopped to consider: what sort of conferences would I go to? Managerial training? It might be useful, indeed it probably would be, but the thought has all the allure of a trip to the dentist...without promise of a lollipop. My role isn't technical enough, really, to get to go to the tech conferences, so that's out--though now that I stop to think, I realize that I didn't truly want to go to learn all about Revisions to Wireless Protocols or A New Way Of Looking At Kernel Hacking; I wanted to go because everyone else was doing it and it sounded like a good time. This is the wrong reason to attend a professional event, it seems to me.

Ergo, a theory: Gauge your interest in a particular career path based on whether the idea of a conference pertaining to that profession is something you greet with excitement and anticipation. So far, the only thing that springs to mind is Kalamazoo, which I've been like the poor kid outside the toy store every single year since I first heard of it, and I swear to God I'm going next year. But I'll be on the lookout for others that strike a chord.

Addendum: I also pondered the fact that I always rejected a career in academia (I mean, on the academic side) because I am a rotten explainer and I'm afraid of public speaking. But as I start getting desensitized by these Godforsaken new student orientation, it's less monumental; and I wonder whether my Failure to Explain is exactly relevant--I wouldn't be telling them This Is How You Factor A Determinant, but sharing with them all the really cool shit I've learned about historical thing X. (...nedlnthred has been trying to get this across to me for several years now. Finally, the penny drops. I are slow.)