Your talk about having a spiel ready brought back a fun memory of mine.

Many years ago, I went to meet my wife's sister for the first time. I'd been told she seemed to be very opinionated about what kinds of jobs were "valuable" in her eyes and to expect her to ask what I did for a living.

Hearing that, I couldn't help but give her some answers she wouldn't expect. "So what do you do?" she asked within the first 5 minutes of meeting me, I replied "I work as a rodeo clown", she had a shocked look on her face when I followed up with "my previous career as a professional break-dancer had to end, I couldn't hold a good head spin anymore".

By that time she was started to catch on, but my point was made. I don't appreciate people who judge others based on some arbitrary ideas on which professions are valuable and which aren't. She didn't quite know how to react to me, but the look on her face was priceless.

I still keep that story handy to tell people who are obviously just wanting to validate their lofty job by comparing it to mine.