DR. WALLACE: Why are some electric lines buried in some communities, but in other places, you can easily see power lines everywhere, on all the major business centers, and even residential streets?

My parents are looking to buy a new home. We visited a city about 30 minutes away from where we currently live, but once my father got into that neighborhood, he said, "Oh, they don't have buried electrical lines. Let's look somewhere else."

My father thinks he needs a home with underground power lines for some reason. Why is this? — 13 and Curious, via email

13 AND CURIOUS: The main reasons why your father likely prefers underground power lines is that they improve the appearance of the community and also protect against power outages from bad weather. Hurricanes and ice storms can wreak havoc on aboveground installations in communities that receive a healthy dose of frigid winter weather.

One of the main reasons that not every community has underground power lines is the huge cost of installing them underground.

The cost of underground power lines is about 10 times higher than the costs to install aboveground power lines, therefore not every city or community can allocate enough of their budget to go the "underground" route.

I'M FINALLY GETTING SERIOUS

DR. WALLACE: I'm starting to get serious about my potential future profession, since I'm a senior in high school this year. I found it interesting that my mother and father have completely opposite viewpoints on the reasons to select a field to make my potential future profession since I'm a senior in high school this year. I found it interesting that my mother and father have completely opposite viewpoints on the reasons to select a field to enter as a potential profession.

My father thinks I should research the top-paying jobs and pick one out of the top five that I think I would either have the aptitude for or be even modestly interested in.

My mother, however, tells me to forget all about money and focus on what I think is important to me, and to the world. She says I should follow my passions and find one of my passions that can lead me to a good job opportunity, even if the starting pay scale is not the largest in the beginning. She says that if I'm passionate about what I work on, it won't even feel like "work" at all, but that if I go after money only, I may get roped into a job or industry that I don't like at all. She has friends who did this but couldn't gather up the courage to quit and leave the bigger salary behind.

What side do you come down on in this debate we're having? — A Senior Planning His Future, via email

A SENIOR PLANNING HIS FUTURE: I side with your mother's point of view. However, making a career choice is your call, not mine, your mother's or your father's.

Think about three areas — what you enjoy doing, what you are good at and what "type" of environment you'd like to work in. The types of environments and various jobs have run the gamut from general office work to working outdoors to working in a fixed location to traveling the country or even the world.

As a young person just starting out with career ambitions, I would encourage you to sample different opportunities as they present themselves to you early on in your working life. Don't feel pressured into making one "final" decision at your present age. Rather seek to create a path buoyed by fundamental reasoning, and then allow space for adjustments as you go forward in your life.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Fré Sonneveld at Unsplash