I Don’t Want To Grow Up!
This week I had the pleasure of guest posting for the lovely Angilio while she was partying it up in Vegas. On her blog I talked about what I had wanted to “be when I grew up” as a child. I had planned to write something different for my post here this week, but since we talk a lot about where we are and where we’re going, I thought it might be fun to think back to the dreams we had as kids, too.
When I was in fifth grade, I was sure I wanted to be a lawyer. I saw The Client, thought that Brad Renfro was pretty hot, and decided that I would be the fiercest prosecutor since Marcia Clark. Since then, I’ve wanted to be a teacher, a novelist and a businesswoman (although I never had any idea what kind of business I actually wanted to do. I wanted to wear heels and dress up for work and that was that). If only I knew then how much I would value the idea of wearing sweatpants all day…
I digress.
In college, I changed my major about fourteen times, often vacillating between Communications and Creative Writing, with a brief stint sophomore year in Elementary Ed, which I quickly abandoned after a summer job at a day camp prompted me to reach the realize that as a teacher, I would be forced to spend days with other people’s nose-picking, peanut-allergic children, little people who couldn’t read and who don’t always wash their hands after they use the bathroom.
As adorable as they’ll be when they are my kids or your kids, there’s something about spending the bulk of my waking hours with people who think diarrhea is funny just didn’t appeal to me on a few levels. I don’t dislike children – in fact, it’s seldom that I don’t come across a baby whose cheeks I want to squeeze.
I digress again.
When my brother was three years old he was dead set on being the ice cream man. During elementary school, he decided he would be a firefighter and soon thereafter, started planning for a career as an astronaut (this may or may not have been around the same time Apollo 13 hit theaters).
When I finally settled on a double major in Creative Writing and Communications in college, I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do with it post-graduation. I stumbled into a job at a public relations agency and the rest is history. Sometimes though, I see the striking similarities between public relations and my fifth grade ambitions to be a prosecutor.
You need to be well-read and well-spoken for a job in public relations. There’s public speaking involved. You represent your client – in different ways, but client service is certainly an important part of both jobs. Even though my fifth grade self might be disappointed that I didn’t turn out to follow in the footsteps of Chris Darden, et al, I’ve certainly used some of the same skills that I’ve always thought I would.
My brother, graduating college this year with a major in TV Productions, probably won’t see his way to the moon, but my sisterly instinct tells me he probably won’t be pushing Choco-Tacos to ten-year olds from the Good Humor truck, either.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up? Are you doing the same thing you wanted to do back then?
April 21st, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Wow. My path was pretty much the same as yours. Only I was solidly “law” and “Prime Minister” until nearly the end of university when I moved into PR. I agree, it’s all the same skills. It makes me happy that I get the good parts of what I wanted with law, but not all the crap that comes with that profession. Phew.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 am
I was just talking about this today. It’s not so much the little kid wishes I had of being a ballerina, or aerobics instructor. It was more the high school plans of doing ’stuff’ with computers or being a business owner of a gift type store. I didn’t want to go to uni though and forgot those wild dreams.
I realised today though that I’m leaving my office job in 6 weeks to blog and sell jewellery online. So I’m pretty much doing what I planned to anyway.
Funny how things stick around in your head subconciously and we move towards accomplishing our goals without doing it on purpose sometimes.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:34 am
I’m one of those few people who did what they pretty much always wanted to do. As a child of the 90’s, I grew up watching Boys Meets World. By the time I hit puberty in 5th grade, I idolized George Feeny. From that moment on, I wanted to be a teacher and have never really wavered from that goal.
Yes I do have others such as writing and cooking but teaching has always been my “what I want to be when I grow up”. I am now one year away from graduation with a dual degree in Elementary Education and English
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 am
As I mentioned once on my blog, when I was growing up, my first dream was to work at 7-11. Then I wanted to be a school bus driver. Much like your brother, I probably won’t fulfill those aspirations, but that’s not such a bad thing!
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:24 am
I wanted to be a princess or ballerina. Unfortunately I settled for teacher. And spending your day with SOME children stinks. Other children are delightful. I should have been a journalist.
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 am
I started off going to college with Electrical Engineering as my major. That was a bad choice, turns out- I dont have the patience for math.
Then I wanted to be an EMT/Fire Fighter (this was around 9/11). So I went to school for that for a year.
Then I graduated with a bachelors in Business Admin. Go figure.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:18 am
I came home from Kindergarten one day and told my mom I wanted to be a garbage man. I guess I had it in my head people throw out fun things and as a garbage man you get first dibs. That didn’t last long. For a long time it was a lawyer. Those tv shows make it looks so cool.
I had a dream of playing in the orchestra at musicals like Lion King or Phantom of the Opera. I still think that would be a lot of fun. I ended up as an Actuary. I enjoy solving problems, but not all the studying. Overall it was a good choice, but sometimes I do miss the wackiness that goes with being a musician.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:28 am
The only thing I can remember wanting to do was be my own boss. Sure I wanted to do something in sports but more than anything I wanted to own my own business in something.
Currently I am an auditor for a large company so I am no where near that goal but there are things in the pipeline that will hopefully pan out and get me to my goal.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
When I was young I wanted to be a firetruck. Not a fireman/woman. I wanted to be the actual truck.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:57 am
I’ve wanted to be a host of different things–including, but not limited to cheerleader, dance teacher, and a forensic scientist– now I’ve graduated with a BA in communications and I’m an admissions counselor. The irony in it… I hated high school. (I skipped my senior year, that’s how much I hated it.) Now I work with high school students on a daily basis…
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Since the age of 12 I wanted to be a psychologist. I dont think I had a clear idea of what that meant, because I thought it meant just figuring out people’s problems all day. Twelve years later, I have my degree in psychology and do Behavioral Counseling. And now contemplating on going back to school for nursing and eventually psychiatric nursing.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I wanted to be a doctor when I was about 6… I eventually got there by playing music for 12 years, majoring in engineering, and spent the first part of my 20s digging myself into debt at a well-known institution. A quarter million dollars and 2 decades after my initial decision, I graduated and left medicine for finance after it was clear that the healthcare system needs more than trained doctors to fix it.
I know what I want to be when I grow up, it just can’t be defined in one word.
December 24th, 2011 at 9:14 am
wedding jewellery…
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