#i hope this is worth the wait lkdfhlkghdkgh

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

I know you’ve mentioned before that you don’t like Nate getting into politics, and I totally agree with you! I even remember watching the finale when I was 12 and finding out that he was running for mayor and I was like, that’s not right...

But I literally have no idea what I would want him to do??? Like, at all???? So, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on that, cause your gg opinions are literally always on point.

I also to this day can’t decide what I think about the Spectator arc. I mean, journalism def feels better than politics, but that whole thing was also started with William and Diana thing, which was... yikes. But in the end he DID break away from them, and I feel like that piece he wrote after William tried to use the Spectator to further Tripp’s career was a real high point for his character. Can you see may dilemma here? What do you think?

Idk, Nate’s just my favourite character (out of the mains who stick around through the whole show), and I very much relate to him on like a neurodivergent level... I just need to replace canon with something better in my head.

hi, sorry about taking a while to come to this! i've been kind of unwell, RIP, and wanted to answer when my brain was like, more present & all that. nate being mayor sucks, because it has such a vibe of him giving up what he wants for whatever his family wants from him ("darthmouth, law school, blair, that was the plan nathaniel," etc etc).

i also don't like the spectator arc for nate at all? like it was so opposed to what nate was actually passionate about, it just didn't make any sense. if he really wanted to break free from his family and do something for himself, why would he choose journalism? from whatever we've seen of nate in the show, i think it's safe to say that'd actually be a really unfulfilling career path for him. he could've chosen to break free from his family by getting a job that's more aligned with things he likes, or at least, things he doesn't vehemently dislike. imagine how much fun it would've been if he'd decided to try his hand at becoming a professional chef! or something new and unexplored, for him, like that.

& your point re: the spectator arc/nate's family.. while i get what you're saying about him trying to break away, it didn't feel like that to me, tbh. it felt so much like he wanted a fresh start, but his grandfather did everything he could to control nate & get nate where he wanted him to be, if that makes sense. and yes, in the situation nate tried to make the best of things, but to me it feels tragic as fuck. and kind of horrible - the sense that no matter what nate tries to do, no matter how far away he tries to get from his family, they're right there, breathing down his neck. they just won't let him be his own person. it makes me wonder what happened to nate during those 5 years of fast-forwarding before the derena wedding & finale... did he try and escape his family more times before realising there was no way he could get out of their grasp, and is that why he succumbed to running for mayor? dammit, i'm sad now.

anyway! i skipped the first question so that i could come to it last, and i've put it under the cut here. so... potential careers for nate that i actually really like, under the cut, here you go:

i like the idea of him being a physical education teacher in high school, like, a lot. i think he'd be really good at it, and unlike some of the absolute garbage instructors i've seen, he would like... be mindful & considerate of kids' feelings and not comment on their bodies or fitness levels in disrespectful ways? you know what i mean.

he could also become a professional athlete? dude was the captain of three different sports teams in high school, come on natie, join a sports team as an adult for REALZ

horseboy!nate is very close to my heart so. i love to think of him doing some job that involves that. riding instructor who works in the stables? racehorse trainer? i don't know, i'm very much not a horseboy. but. yeah.

kindergarten teacher natie!!!! this one is really beloved to me. i am gonna write milofic with date endgame about it someday... milo's in kindergarten, nate's his teacher, dan's the hot single dad, you see where this is headed....

i like the idea of nate running vlogs, like "how to" vlogs, for people who are new to adulting, or whatever? i think he'd find it satisfying AND he'd be good at it. stuff like "how to cook if you're living alone," "how to file your own taxes," "how to assemble furniture from ikea" (bonus video: "how not to assemble furniture from ikea"), & i think he'd have a really good brand of like. humour & sincerity? like he would have "how to cook" videos but he would also have "i burnt breakfast again" kind of videos. idk, i just like natie being able to leave the sheltered bubble that is the van der bilt hivemind & do his own thing - and find joy doing his own thing! and share that joy!!

in that line - an arc i LOVE for nate is nate deliberately working jobs like customer service/retail & all that just so that he gets that experience and learns what that is like. cashier natie my beloved... i'm actually writing that one into a fic, lol. but just stuff like that.

nate & vanessa working in a coffee shop together.......

flight attendant nate...

okay, this one is a favourite: tour guide nate!!! like, one of those guides who escorts a group of tourists around a city and tells them about the history and monuments and shows them the sights. i mean, he canonically did do this with raina, but of course, as a tour guide, there'd be... less romance in his job, LOL.

im suddenly thinking of nate being a cab driver and i'm really into it, idk what to tell you.

mechanic nate! but mostly just for the potential datefic. dan's car breaks down and nate's there to fix it and dan can't stop staring at nate's arms, good lord,,

jokes aside, there's something really good about nate specialising in repairs of some sort. any sort! hardware repair, clock fixing, plumbing.... it doesn't matter whatever it is, i love the idea of nate making broken objects better.

nate would be really good at being an actor or a model i feel, but i think those jobs would make him miserable, so unless we're looking at angsty/whumpy fic premises for him, that's not what i wanna see him doing

i know that both S & liz have mentioned social worker nate at some point, and while i personally don't really see it, i do think he has the right skillset for it & that it's a cool headcanon!

someone - i don't remember whom, i think it was leila but i could be totally mistaken - said something about nate being one of those counsellors who work in school & yeah, he's definitely got the right skillset for that.

i definitely forgot some, & if my mutuals want to reblog + add please go ahead!