Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to me if I’d stayed with what I studied in school.

I received my undergraduate degree in Biology.  More specifically, I studied Biotechnology & Genetics.  It’s a subject that I still love but it took me my entire BS degree to figure out that I absolutely hated doing it.  It finally dawned on me my first semester in graduate school that my least favorite part of all of my classes were the labs….ummm duh!…that would be what I would be really doing for a living.  Time for a course correction!

Anyway, the rest is as they say, history.  I taught myself software engineering and eventually went back to school for business administration years later.  Quite a strange combination, I know.  It took many years later for me to realize, but I came to understand that academic science and I were oil and water anyways.  Let me explain – what I really wanted to do is what I heard called result-oriented science…which is fancy way of saying that I was always an engineer…I wanted to create things, using science, to solve problems and make money – not just ask questions for the sake of asking questions.  For example, I could care less about the “Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear sequences supports a close relationship between Acantholingua ohridana and Salmo salar” (in other words using genetics to trace how related different species of fish are…..yawn)….besides, where’s the money in that??

I was thinking recently about a problem that needs to be solved (for me anyway) and could make someone a lot of money.  OK, are you listening Monsanto?  Someone needs to spend research on inventing grass seed that grows in low water, high sunlight and high heat, can withstand frost and low temperatures, grows rapidly and then very very slowly after reaching 2 inches so it needs less mowing and naturally produces toxins for broadleaf plants and weeds.

Think about it, we’d all have more leisure time.  We would spend less money on gas for our mowers and we would spew less crap into the air (no I don’t care about the “global warming” aspect but the smell and the noise are not good so let’s knock it out if we can), we would use less water and pour fewer chemicals on our lawns.  I’m sure I’ve read about some companies (Scotts maybe) that have already started down this path – but not to the extent I’m talking about.  If the only things growing in my yard are weeds then why can’t we infuse those hardy properties into grass?

Would you use my “Franken-Grass” in your yard? MuHAHAHAHA It’s ALIVE!!!! LOL