Careers advice

In the early 1200s a young scholar named Edmund was fast asleep after a hard day's teaching. His late mother appeared to him in a dream. She looked at the drawings he had been working on and asked him, "Son, what are these shapes?" Edmund explained he was planning a lecture for his students and that these were to illustrate geometric figures. His mother was not impressed and drew her own diagram on his palm: three circles within which were written 'Father, Son, Holy Spirit'. "Those are the figures you should be studying!", she scolded.

In the early 2000s a young scholar named Ewa was trying to study for her actuarial exams, amidst constant interruptions from her mother (who was still very much alive). "Daughter, what are all these untidy scribbles?" Ewa explained that this was shorthand notation, that she used to project interest rates, annuities, and lifetimes. Her mother was not impressed and intimated that her daughter should have done something more useful like law 🙄

Edmund subsequently thrived in his career, becoming a canon of Salisbury Cathedral and being elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1233. After his death he was canonised and is known to history as St Edmund of Abingdon.

Ewa stumbled along in her career, earning a comfortable salary but never the unqualified admiration of her mother who remains convinced to this day that her daughter makes her living from gambling. And although she has the patience of a saint, her chances of earthly recognition are extremely limited owing to having been brought up in the Catholic Church 🤦‍♀️😇