Now how cute is that?! Have I mentioned that I have baby fever? Anyway, I digress...
This is something that we've all thought about hundreds of time in our lives. When we're really little, it's usually the fantastical (super hero or princess). A little later, it's a little more practical (firefighter or ballerina). By the time middle school rolls around, we're starting to get a more realistic idea of what we want to be when we grow up that is actually based on our strengths and interests. Then comes High School and College. That's when we either solidify our previous aspirations, or completely change our minds.
For me, it went a little something like this:
Elementary School: (I can't seem to remember what I wanted to be before that) I always wanted to be a mom. I just idolized my mom (and still do). I wanted to have 4 kids like she did. I wanted to make Halloween costumes like she did. I wanted to sing and dance in the kitchen and make cookies like she did.
Middle School: Due to an assignment we had at school that required us to design, decorate, and make a scale model of a bedroom we'd love to have, I got it into my head that I would like to be an interior designer. Also due to that assignment and reflection on the kind of teacher that would give an assignment like that (and my other favorite teachers over the years: Mrs. Webb and Mr. Coffee), I figured I could also be a teacher. I didn't think the teacher/interior designer/mom was unrealistic at all.
High School: The prospect of having to decorate people's houses with gaudy florals or other things that weren't my taste kind of turned me off of the whole interior designer thing. But with having 2 more of my favorite teachers of all time (my band director, Mr. Gibson and my AP European History teacher, Mr. Thomesen), I was pretty sure that a teacher is what I wanted to be. I was either going to teach 1st grade or high school. I figured that in 1st grade they're still cute and sweet, and in high school they'd be able to understand and appreciate some sarcasm.
College: By this time, I was certain that teaching was what I wanted to do. But I still wanted to be a mom more than anything...I always did. And that dream came true a little sooner than planned. Then I finally narrowed it down to Elementary school and after observing in Kinder and 1st and student teaching in 3rd and 5, I was hoping for a job in 2nd grade. That dream, too, came true...at the last minute.
Now: I am so, SO lucky. I am so blessed to be able to say that I have become what I wanted to be when I grew up. But at the same time, I find myself asking, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" I know I've blogged (and ranted) about this before, but there it is. And I'm pretty confident that I'm not alone in that. I think that a lot of people love a career that they've chosen, but still come to a point when they want something different, too. So I still don't know the answer to that question: baker, nurse, lottery winner...who knows?! But I have faith that the answer will come soon enough. :)
So how about you? What did you want to be when you were little? How did that change over time? Is there anything else that you want to be now?
This is something that we've all thought about hundreds of time in our lives. When we're really little, it's usually the fantastical (super hero or princess). A little later, it's a little more practical (firefighter or ballerina). By the time middle school rolls around, we're starting to get a more realistic idea of what we want to be when we grow up that is actually based on our strengths and interests. Then comes High School and College. That's when we either solidify our previous aspirations, or completely change our minds.
For me, it went a little something like this:
Elementary School: (I can't seem to remember what I wanted to be before that) I always wanted to be a mom. I just idolized my mom (and still do). I wanted to have 4 kids like she did. I wanted to make Halloween costumes like she did. I wanted to sing and dance in the kitchen and make cookies like she did.
Middle School: Due to an assignment we had at school that required us to design, decorate, and make a scale model of a bedroom we'd love to have, I got it into my head that I would like to be an interior designer. Also due to that assignment and reflection on the kind of teacher that would give an assignment like that (and my other favorite teachers over the years: Mrs. Webb and Mr. Coffee), I figured I could also be a teacher. I didn't think the teacher/interior designer/mom was unrealistic at all.
High School: The prospect of having to decorate people's houses with gaudy florals or other things that weren't my taste kind of turned me off of the whole interior designer thing. But with having 2 more of my favorite teachers of all time (my band director, Mr. Gibson and my AP European History teacher, Mr. Thomesen), I was pretty sure that a teacher is what I wanted to be. I was either going to teach 1st grade or high school. I figured that in 1st grade they're still cute and sweet, and in high school they'd be able to understand and appreciate some sarcasm.
College: By this time, I was certain that teaching was what I wanted to do. But I still wanted to be a mom more than anything...I always did. And that dream came true a little sooner than planned. Then I finally narrowed it down to Elementary school and after observing in Kinder and 1st and student teaching in 3rd and 5, I was hoping for a job in 2nd grade. That dream, too, came true...at the last minute.
Now: I am so, SO lucky. I am so blessed to be able to say that I have become what I wanted to be when I grew up. But at the same time, I find myself asking, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" I know I've blogged (and ranted) about this before, but there it is. And I'm pretty confident that I'm not alone in that. I think that a lot of people love a career that they've chosen, but still come to a point when they want something different, too. So I still don't know the answer to that question: baker, nurse, lottery winner...who knows?! But I have faith that the answer will come soon enough. :)
So how about you? What did you want to be when you were little? How did that change over time? Is there anything else that you want to be now?
When I was 2-3 yrs old, my mom asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said, "I want to be Wonder Woman. Will come to college with me and watch me learn to fly?"
ReplyDeleteThroughout my childhood I changed goals frequently. It might have been teacher one week, doctor another, lawyer another, astronaut another. By high school I had decided on doctor. But when I got to college, I was really interested in psychology and changed my plan to psychiatry, then to clinical psychology. However, after college, I spent a year working with people with severe mental health problems and I found it heartbreaking and frustrating. It was this experience that led me to research. I just felt that there was more we needed to learn to be able to help these people that were suffering so. That's when I started grad school in neuroscience, studying the neurobiology of psychopathology.
I never even thought about family in those early years. I was so focused on everything else. But now I'm older and family's become important. It throws a whole other kink in the plans because I'm in a male dominated field trying to figure out how to balance everything that I want. It's not simple. But I'd give up everything I've done so far for that next phase-- not that I have to, but i would.
Oh yeah, and i still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
ReplyDeleteFrom as early as I can remember, all I ever wanted to be was a wife and mother. Maybe it's because when my sisters and I played together, all we really had were dolls and the game we played the most was "house". Nothing about that desire ever changed...ever.
ReplyDeleteLater on I toyed with the idea of being a teacher. I think a couple years teaching Sunday School showed me that wasn't quite up my alley.
After going on a field trip/tour to the State School I became really interested in Special Education. That was my major in college, but it was the speech pathology side of it I wanted to do.
I didn't have money to go back to school after my first year, so got a job at the State School. Loved working and playing with the residents there, but became really frustrated when trying to work with the profoundly retarded. We would sit for days/weeks on end trying to get them to just make eye contact. I knew if I chose to pursue that avenue it would have to be with the ones I could make a difference with.
If I ever needed to go back and get a degree, it would still be in Special Ed speech pathology.
I was voted most likely to succeed my Senior year in High School, and although I am the only female in my class that never had a full time job or career, I know in my heart that I did just that. I am a wife and mother, the only things I ever truly wanted to be. Always.
Well said, mom! I agree whole-heartedly...you are the most successful woman I know!
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts, Megan! I love getting to know more about you. :)