I am quite sure you will recognize this person. This individual query what you do for a living. He or she doesn’t really care to hear your answer, it is just a way for them to expound ad nauseam what he or she does for a living. 

I encountered this particular individual at the local bagel shop I frequent. Up to that point I had been lucky that his unwelcome and unwarranted prattle was levied at someone else. Unfortunately for me that day, it was raining, and the bagel shop was uncustomary empty, except for the two of us. 

This was the conversation I had dreaded. Unlike the other unsuspecting patrons who had fallen victim to this person’s, what seemed innocuous question, I had formulated a plan after witnessing other’s distress when accosted by the aforementioned individual. 

I could tell you what the plan was but that would take all the fun out of it for you in discovering exactly what I did . . . 

“What do you for a living?” 

“I make fat people well,” I nonchalantly replied. 

“Oh, you’re a doctor.” 

“No.” 

“How do you make them well?” 

“I educate,” I said, looking at my order slip. 

“So, you are a nutritionist?” 

“Not really,” I replied, looking over the counter to see what was the hold up with my order. “My scope of practice does not allow me to give out detailed dietary information.” 

“Then what do you do, to make fat people well?” 

Before I could answer, the cashier yelled out my order number . . . 

B.M.Booth (NASM-CPT)